Crossing the River Gates: The Rubicon's Flow
by Airheaded dude
Summary: Dimensional Magic has always been a thing of uncertainty. It always manages to do things at the most inconvenient of times. This time, dimensional magic has interfered with the climax of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. A rewrite of Crossing the River Gates.
1. Prologue: In Death's Dream

**Crossing the River Gates: The Rubicon's Flow**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto, all rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This is strictly for fan purposes only.

I do not own Fairy Tail, all rights belong to Hiro Mashima. This is strictly for fan purposes only.

**Summary: **Dimensional Magic has always been a thing of uncertainty. It always manages to do things at the most inconvenient of times. This time, dimensional magic has interfered with the climax of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. A significant rewrite of Crossing the River Gates.

* * *

"_Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."_

_- Theodore Roosevelt

* * *

_

Prologue: In Death's Dream

A bleak and incomprehensive nightmare was what he would describe as the event that would come to be known as the Fourth Shinobi World War escalated to such unholy proportions that he couldn't make sense of what was going on anymore.

Hatake Kakashi, General of the Third Division, watched in absolute shock as he saw the countless and overwhelming numbers of the clone army made up of Zetsus popped up from nowhere. By the time they had realized it, they were already surrounded and had to resort to survival tactics rather than offensive ones. At first, they stood up to the amassing Zetsu army that simply rushed at them blindly. They were relatively weak and had almost no fighting ability, but they made up for it in the form of sheer numbers.

The attacks would continue on at random intervals and the push became long and tedious. Every single time they tried to go through a line, it took days to get there. The Medical and Logistics division were already exhausted carrying and healing the injured as they pushed through the border of Hot Spring Country. Shizune's team was responsible in taking decommissioned and non-combatants alike from the field and they were also responsible in relaying supplies. As the battle progressed, Shizune's team would be constantly mobile, moving their supplies from one location to another all the while some traveled back to Lightning Country to obtain more aid and supplies.

Kakashi had noticed that as the war continued, morale was slowly being diminished. Slowly being consumed by this conflict, men and women were dying left and right, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons and siblings were dropping like flies as they pressed on. The Ambush team hadn't been lucky, only two members managed to survive the first battle with the undead. Sai was repositioned to another ambush team along with Kankurou. It was the most disastrous operation of the war to date coming from the alliance.

They were the first to encounter _them_. At first he had been cautious, wary of the army that Kabuto had resurrected. As they continued on, it became harder and harder to press on to where Madara's base of operations lie. When they finally DID get there, it was then that the nightmare finally appeared in full force.

The army of the living dead appeared before them, all of them were ninja renowned in their time, people that had made claims to fame because of their power and abilities and the danger that they possessed. It was as if it was taken from a page of a horror novel.

It took a lot of soldiers just to fight and restrain one. Nagato and Itachi in particular, were incredibly difficult to put down. They were immortal super soldiers. They had enough power to wipe out a single village or country. Kakashi bore witness to the nightmare that plagued them for weeks. It took the new Ambush Team, now comprised of Neji, Sai, Kankurou, Ino, Shino and Sakura, the same amount of time that they had to endure to locate Kabuto and trick him into ending the technique. Though Ino and Sakura had a hard time in inducing the Genjutsu to Kabuto who was by no means a fool when it came to illusions, they pulled it off and rescued Anko even if it almost killed all of them.

When they thought that the path was clear to final base, then _HE_ appeared. Now clad with the Eternal Mangekyou, Sasuke gave that psychotic grin as he began running down from the mountain before stabbing the black and white Zetsu, who was holding him back from the frontlines. The Uchiha was impatient. He noticed how eager Sasuke was in decimating their forces and delivering a very devastating blow to a dwindling army. The boy was stopped midway in his run though, when Naruto had suddenly intercepted Sasuke out of nowhere in a flash of yellow light.

Wrapped in a yellow like aura, the blonde wordlessly stared at Sasuke as his Susanoo began to form.

A slip up from Killer Bee had him running from Turtle Island to the battlefield for days. Naruto had finished his training with Killer Bee who had no choice but to divulge the whole thing about the war to him and why he was being kept on the island. He went on his own, charging through the ranks like an indomitable force of nature, too fast and too powerful to stop.

It did not sit well with Naruto about the whole thing. So once and for all, he wanted to put an end to every ministration, every machination, every plan that Madara has had in store.

It was time to put a stop to this madness, once and for all.

Up into the side of Mountain's Graveyard, Uchiha Madara watched in silent anticipation as Naruto and Sasuke faced each other in battle. He sat on one of the rocks situated by the side as his army of Zetsus battled against the main force of the Shinobi Alliance.

Thanks to Kabuto and his army of undead zombies, the war became much easier to his side. With wiping out almost half of the alliance's fighting force and a few members of the army remaining. Kabuto had been a useful tool, the grey haired medic managed to incapacitate Tsunade, lured her into a state of shock and frustration when she saw her lover. A was momentarily taken aback by the former Raikage and was almost killed thus almost costing the alliance the entire campaign and ultimately resulting in Bee's capture. He was so useful that Madara was more than enough to become wary of the man, the former right hand man of Orochimaru knew a lot about him, he knew his secrets and with him gone, it would be a secret that he assured would not get out.

Madara had to admit though; Kabuto knew his way with screwing with people's minds. Many of the Shinobi Kabuto resurrected were connected deeply with certain people like the Raikage and Bee's father, or Dan and Tsunade. The man was so good in psychological warfare that the organization of the alliance easily crumbled to something so trivial like connections to a loved one.

He looked to the other side and saw the different divisions or what's left of them, were once more clashing with his army of Zetsus. The struggle was now in a stalemate, but Madara wasn't interested in it, he was much more interested between the two below.

The rapidly dwindling numbers of the army from both sides indicated that the war was on its last legs. A sign of things finally coming to an end, Madara watched as Naruto and Sasuke, Uchiha and Uzumaki, face off and triggered the climax of this war that would decide the fate of the entire world.

Madara smiled beneath his mask, a new age was dawning upon them and he would be the one to open the gates of this new world.

* * *

Edolas:

Faust looked over his majestic city in deep contemplation. It had been years since his son's disappearance, years of looking for a way for his kingdom to survive obtaining magic. The old king looked at his city, as questions began littering his mind while looking below the ignorant citizens of this grand and powerful kingdom.

How much more would the magic last in this world? How much magic would Anima obtain and convert it to power? How many years would it take powering the city?

As these questions continued to play into his mind, Faust turned his gaze from below the common folk to up above in the heavens, were a floating island lay still over his precious capital.

He scowled. His complacency turned into a silent but inconceivable rage.

The Exceed had always been a race of creatures internally born with magic. Therefore, they sought it fit to be considered as beings higher than anyone in this world. These _creatures_ that are no better than the common house cat looked down upon them, they who had been providing magic to this dying world, judging them from such an arrogant location with their noses held high below them.

Faust would show them, they would show them that these creatures and their queen as nothing more than a farce. They weren't gods or angels, they are creatures born of luck due to their magic.

He gave a small yet sinister smile as he looked towards the heavens and saw the small speck that housed the Exceed.

Certainly, every magic in this world will belong to his kingdom and only to him. This is what it should be, for the dawn of a better world.

"Faust-sama, our mages had begun testing the Anima and they would like you to oversee the initial test results."

Faust turned his back towards one of his most loyal subjects, Erza Knightwalker, the Fairy Hunter. Sadistic and cruel, Knightwalker wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone that goes against the interests of the capital, or to put it bluntly, the interests of the king.

Her fierce loyalty and efficiency towards the Royal Army earned her a fearful yet begrudging respect among her peers.

Faust turned his back from the balcony and wordlessly left the room as his most loyal knight remained genuflect.

As the king stepped into the room that housed Anima, he looked around his mages with his expectant gaze as he looked at the very core of the machine itself.

"What is it that you have to report?" He asked. He knew that the Anima was the perfect tool. The blasted Exceed had said so!

"One of our workers has found a strange anomaly in Anima's magic detecting radar, sire. It's picking up large bursts of magical power outside of the usual coordinates we have set up to gather magic from. It is quite a discovery. We have never seen such strong magical fluctuations that are attracting this strange phenomenon." The one that reported to him adjusted his glasses and looked at the chart showing large, sharp angles in graphs as he continued further, "We are currently attempting to track it down and see just how strong it is, your majesty, if we can get a lock on its coordinates, we could possibly extract enough magical power to last us for more than a hundred years!"

Faust's eyes widened at this sudden turn of events, he stood unresponsive for a few seconds before giving a small chuckle turning into full blown laughter as the news finally hit home.

"I see. Make sure we obtain it. I want that much magic as soon as possible." Faust mentioned as he watched in anticipation and glee for what was to come next.

Much like a child anxiously awaiting his gift, Faust looked on in intense fascination, in absolute excitement as he waited for the magic to appear into this world. In silent trepidation, Faust had hoped that everything would go smoothly. There was nothing the hand of Anima cannot reach, or at least, that's what they thought.

"Sir, we have a lock on of the coordinates that Anima has detected earlier, but it seems it is rather too far for us to fully extract that much energy for us."

Faust's excitement turned to anger as he gripped the railings as hard as he could.

"What do you mean Anima is too far to reach it? What kind of foolishness does this enact? There is nothing unreachable for the hand of Anima!"

The subordinate stopped in fear of the king's wrath, he watched as King Faust hurriedly went over to him as much as his frail body took. The King of Edolas growled in silent rage as he went over the man.

"I'm sorry, your highness, but it is exactly as what it says! The magic needed to absorb that much energy and the distance of the object requires magical energy to likes of which we don't currently have! I would daresay it would be impossible to…"

"SILENCE!" Faust commanded as he slammed his hand on to the wooden desk.

"Your majesty, I'm sorry to intrude, but indeed this man is right."

An arm placed on to Faust's shoulders as the mage said to him whilst holding the book.

"Indeed, it is impossible to transfer all of it. However, might I suggest something of a substitute to bringing it closer, milord?" The mage asked, to which the King calmed down and looked at the mage with that flat look of his.

"What do you have in mind?"

"A fractional transfer of putting such a level of magic in a different plane before doing it again for the actual extraction, granted, it would take us months to restore Anima to its same power as it is today, but it would assure us of near limitless magical energy for the city and the empire for years to come once we gain this much energy."

Faust grew impatient at this. He almost tasted the cusp of his plan when he heard of how much magic they would be able to extract only to find out that the place that had attracted Anima was too far and too impossible to extract all?

"I don't care. I just want that magic here." Was all Faust could say before as he turned back from the group. The King of Edolas walked away in dismay and was clearly upset. He had sunk his fangs too deep into this incident.

But it would not deter him, for it would only be a few months from now before he can fulfil his one wish.

_To restore and create an order in the new world, with his kingdom at the helm._

Faust sat on his throne once more, with that complete look of disappointment etched on his face.

The man put a palm on his face before sighing and finally called for one of his elite soldiers.

"Knightwalker!"

And just on cue, the Fairy Hunter appeared just before him coming from the shadows that littered his empty hall.

"Gather your men and begin collecting magic from the outlawed curs that still use magic. Purge the lot of 'em and send their weapons to me once you are done."

The redhead bowed deeply and excused herself from his presence. Faust's hands were trembling in fists of pure rage at this. Such a foul mood deserved an equal appeasement.

With not but a silent room in his hall, Faust mumbled once more about his ambitions for the kingdom and all the power he will obtain to bring down those pompous and arrogant Exceed. They were no god, and he shall prove it, once and for all.

* * *

Mountains' Graveyard:

The clash of two long rivalling foes, connected together by a bond of mutual hatred, of ancient feuds tracing back to the origin of all ninjas, has finally taken center stage as the curtains open for a new dawn.

Naruto and Sasuke, brothers in arms yet pitted against one another. The cruelty of fate had never been clearer than the intertwined fates of these young men. Cursed for events out of their hands, taken into extremes of plunging both into an abyss of hatred created by ninjas of the past, one of them eventually had their sanity taken and driven off to the edge of the darkest and deepest pit.

They watched in trepidation and anxiety, as the last of the Uzumaki faced off against the apparent last of the Uchiha. Faced in this never ending struggle, the world watched as the skies gave way to dark grey clouds and wept.

The mourning of the world to the tragedy that would befall in this time would be forever carved into history, the day friends and brothers face off one another in a battle to the death.

Once the signs of battle between Naruto and Sasuke had commenced, Sakura had abandoned her post in order to go after the two in order to see through it in the end, in order to stop this madness once and for all.

"Wait, Sakura! Get back here!" Kankurou shouted at the girl as the leader of the Ambush squadron tried to get the kunoichi only to be stopped as soon as the pink haired girl shouted, "I'm sorry, I have somewhere to be! I'll accept whatever happens to me later!"

Kankurou cursed his luck and clicked his tongue, he looked over to his other members and saw that all of them had this longing expression towards the general direction to here Sakura went. The puppet master sighed at this, "Going out of formation would severely destroy our coordination, and I've been meaning to take down Uchiha Sasuke anyway, so it's best that we take him on as a group rather than alone."

The members of the Ambush Squadron all nodded at him.

Kakashi sought after them along with Gai, taking with him, the remaining members of Naruto's classmates and peers, Hinata, Shikamaru, Lee, Tenten and Kiba that were not selected for the squadron along with the Logistics officer, Shizune and the only surviving member of the first recon team, Anko.

With a wave of sand, Gaara had managed to push through the frontlines for Kakashi and the rest to go through.

"You have some place where you ought to be, go there and be Naruto's support. I am sure he is tormented by the fact that he is facing his blood brother. Go, I will provide you with the necessary cover. If Madara so happens to intervene, Naruto will have the necessary people to defend him at his most vulnerable."

Kakashi nodded at this as he and the rest followed suit.

Gaara watched as they charged through the enemy line in swift motion, all the while, he remained silent and motionless while standing on his sand cloud.

To his right, the Tsuchikage floated safely above the chaos as he said to Gaara, "Do not delude yourself, Kazekage-dono."

The old man looked below and unleashed a molecule crushing technique that destroyed several clones.

"I can see from your actions that you want to join them as well, do you wish not to go?"

Gaara could only give a small reply, "I have a duty here to protect and follow through with the words that Uzumaki Naruto left behind for me. Whereas the Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces, I will be the one to wait for Uzumaki Naruto as a friend and will be the one to tell him to stand once more. That's what friends do."

The Tsuchikage simply grinned at this and asked the Fifth Kazekage, "How could a simple genin give so much faith, Kazekage-dono?"

Gaara's eyes merely trailed towards the dwindling armies of white Zetsus below as he replied, "You do not understand, Tsuchikage-dono. You have yet to meet one such as Uzumaki Naruto, perhaps if you do meet him, you will see why I'm so indebted to him."

As the battle waged forth for the last stand on Mountain's Graveyard, none of them noticed the dark clouds above were swirling in dark haze as thunder boomed and lightning crackled.

**BOOM!**

"Naruto…" Sasuke mumbled as he stared at his former teammate who was now shrouded in that yellow chakra of his. He moved too fast for his Sharingan to see as if watching mirages of the boy going around him in circles. It wasn't like it back then.

Back then, he was the superior one in speed. Back then, he took advantage of the fact that he was faster than the dobe.

But now, it was different, Naruto was the one who was slippery, almost impossible to touch or even nick. Not only that, he hits as hard as ever. To what seemed like an impenetrable wall of defence in Susanoo's favour, Naruto was able to bypass it and punch him right across the face that sent him flying from his recent position.

"You were always an eyesore." Sasuke mumbled as he got up, his eternal Mangekyou coming to life as he dusted himself off from the debris.

Naruto scowled at the man that he once called a brother. The moment that they finally met once more, was the moment that they would put this thing to rest.

"Are you done?" He asked. Sasuke merely scowled as the blonde crouched down, itching for this very moment.

"Talking is over. This time, I come for real. You don't know how much I would like to beat the crap out of you."

Their fists itching to punch one another, adamant in striking their opponent down, shook violently as they clashed once more, their punches echoed throughout the morose and desolate landscape. Its harrowing force sent shockwaves as former friends fought their battle. Letting all pent up anger and emotions fly off the handle.

Once the people from the Ambush team and Kakashi's team arrived on the spot, they saw clouds of smoke rising from multiple areas. Craters littered the ground, as the two fought their battle at an immense pace.

"Look at those two go… It's almost hard to detect even with the Sharingan." Kakashi muttered as he watched the saddening but awe striking event.

"So why are we just sitting around here? We need to take down the Uchiha as soon as possible!" Ever the captain of the Ambush Squadron, Kankurou began to unravel one of his scrolls when he felt a hand grasping for his shoulder

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

The puppet master turned his head to the side and slowly, he met the man wearing the orange mask, the one who claimed himself to be Uchiha Madara, patriarch of the Uchiha clan, betrayer of the Leaf.

"Bastard!" Kankurou was about to respond when Madara simply pushed him away with a repulsion blast.

"Shinra Tensei."

Kankurou was suddenly thrown off from his position and sent hurtling towards the mountain side and crashed to the Earth's wall. Everyone looked surprised at the sudden display of power coming from the man.

"Impossible! The only person to have that kind of repulsion technique is…" Kakashi was immediately cut off.

"Pain, am I correct? Granted it wasn't easy in obtaining this eye. I lost my left eye and right arm from Konan before I managed to kill her. I've grown much, much stronger than the last time you saw me, so do your worst, I am no doubt going to kill all of you."

The Konoha Ninja instantly backed away from the man as they each jumped out of range from him. Madara barely moved an inch as they seem to size him up considerably.

"You all know the timing of using his repulsion technique, correct?" Kakashi asked to which all of them nodded.

"Good, if any of us can give enough openings for any of us to make a clear shot, make sure you all make it count." Kakashi mentioned and once more, all of them nodded.

"Taking into account his phasing ability, I wouldn't be so sure of harming him entirely just like that. He's far too slippery for me capture." Shikamaru mentioned this as he scratched the back of his head, he grabbed a kunai tied with a long line of string and explosive notes and stretched it firmly from his hand.

"Genjutsu wouldn't work as well. He has the Sharingan so consider illusions out of our limited choices." Ino continued.

To this, Madara laughed slightly and took a small step forward.

"Do you honestly think that you can manage to land a hit on me with just you people? Do you think you can take me on now that I have the power of the Rikudo Sennin?" This time, Madara laughed out loud as for a full minute as the Konoha Shinobi watched in contempt.

"Don't speak so highly of yourselves." Madara's mood changed immediately from amused to serious as he stretched out both his arms at them.

"Know the difference between me and you lot." Madara's features darkened and started to build up the necessary chakra for a powerful enough Shinra Tensei to wipe them and the army at their backs that was slowly making its way towards them. Neji and Hinata's Byakugan instantly could tell the magnitude of the technique he was about to do and immediately told everyone to take down Madara immediately.

From the distance where Naruto and Sasuke fought, the blonde could immediately feel the spike of sudden killing intent. From what he could feel, the enormous chakra being gathered stopped him in his tracks and evaded Sasuke's oncoming swipe of his chokuto and countered with a powerful straight punch to his jaw sending him crashing to the mountain wall.

Naruto immediately turned around dashed his way towards the site where he could feel the spike of chakra forcing that felt like a balloon ready to burst when he finally noticed something.

The skies above had been looking restless for a long while. The clouds briskly moving in a fashion similar to the swirl in his jacket suddenly alarmed him when the spiking levels of chakra began bombarding his senses like hammers to a nail, Naruto staggered as he fell down, completely taken off guard by the sudden invasion of chakra pouring out from everywhere he could feel. The earth, the water and even the air he breathed felt like a large amount of condensed chakra at a single spot.

"Die, NARUTO!" Sasuke menacingly leapt at the blonde, drawing Kusanagi from his arms and used a reverse grip, over his head, thinking of stabbing the blonde straight to the heart.

Naruto looked back as he saw Sasuke about to strike him and braced himself to catch the blade as he shouted, "Don't count me out yet, bastard!"

"It's over!" Madara announced as he took a deep breath and let out a huge wave of repulsion against his opponents that could do nothing to take him down.

"**CHOU SHINRA TENSEI **(Ultimate Subjugation of the Omnipresent Being)**" **The strong gravitational force forced its way towards the group as the ground beneath the ancient man caved in and formed a crater. The trail of dust and debris soon raced all around the area lifting and hurtling anything away from Madara and lifted everything within sight at point blank range.

As Madara watched solemnly at the destruction that he caused, he had failed to notice that many of the ninja that stood at his front were not within point blank range.

Inside the very mountain itself, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Realm shook violently as a shrill cry escaped from its mouth. The earth trembled from the inhuman roar that escapedas its eyes began to shake. Down below, past where the cells of the First Hokage and Yamato are assimilated, the very root of the statue began to violently shake from the phenomenon.

In a matter of seconds, the swirling clouds of grey rapidly opened up and revealed a white luminous light while the force of Madara's Jutsu taking with it, a huge chunk of the alliance forces and the army of Zetsu clones, torn away and visibly battered by the forceful gravitational repulsion.

The earth suddenly trembled and Madara lost his balance for a moment, the man looked down and saw several fissures forming beneath him, spreading slowly but surely all around him. His eyes widened at the realization of the possible consequence of what might just happen.

Madara looked up and he saw trees and debris rising from the ground, going upwards towards that blinding white light, he could see people going up as well, being dragged to whatever that thing was.

Madara scowled beneath his porcelain mask. He saw the son of the Fourth Hokage being dragged upwards, towards that _thing_. With his hand outstretched he summoned forth another of the Rikudo Sennin's miraculous powers.

"Bansho Ten'in (Gathering of Creation)!"

Up above, Naruto's peers and known superiors looked at the scene of what was to happen. Naruto was about to be pulled towards Madara when Anko suddenly began forming handseals.

With an outstretched hand, she let go a plethora of snakes from her sleeves and with them, tightly grasped Naruto by coiling their bodies to it.

"Oh no you don't, Sen'ei Jashu (Hidden Snake Hands)!"

The only surviving member of the recon team then pulled the blonde with all of her might as Naruto relinquished the Kyuubi's chakra back. The gravitational force of attraction missed when Anko changed Naruto's position and sent the boy to the very top.

The sudden bombardment of his senses felt like he was being tortured for several days. The unbearable pain somehow numbed his body down

Down below, the Gedo Mazo was finally unplugged from below and Madara could visibly see the head slowly making its appearance known. The madman growled at this as the heretic statue finally rose from its earthen prison.

"No! I won't let this happen! I won't waste my work that took almost a century!"

The earth soon gave way as the Gedo Mazo bulged from the ground and rose into the sky.

Madara reach far out into the distance where Gedo Mazo was, as finally, the white light above broth forth streams of it like cascading waterfalls it began to literally scoop up everything in it.

Madara then jumped, his only remaining piece was way up into the sky, far reaching than anyone else. Just then, like a whirlpool's vortex, the stream of light sucked everything to its epicentre. Leaving behind nothing as it sucked anything and everything it could reach.

And just like that, as to when the strange object appeared it disappeared just as abruptly.

* * *

Deep Forest:

The skies darkened all over Fiore on this day, where the clouds signalled forth a harrowing storm. As rain slowly begun to pelt the ever fertile lands, four people find themselves slowly waking up from a seemingly real nightmare.

"W-What happened?" A voice asked, from the tone of the voice, it became apparent that it was female. Perhaps already mature in terms of growth.

"Something from the sky sucked us in. It's most likely that whatever it is, it was meant as a transportation type of jutsu, the question is, where did it send us and more importantly where did it send the others?" The second one asked, low, calm and collected, judging from the tone, it was male.

"That's not the only thing I've noticed, Kakashi." The woman said as they stood up causing the bushes to rustle.

"What I'm more concerned about was that statue, Uchiha Sasuke and that masked man. They were sucked by that thing too if I recall." The woman said as Kakashi nodded.

"A worst case scenario would be if Naruto were sent with one or the other." Kakashi helpfully mentioned.

"You can alleviate your youthful selves from such thoughts!" Another voice shouted and this time, a man in green leaf green spandex and a green vest, to his waist was tied the symbol of the alliance, the mark of a united front. Orange leg warmers were placed on each of his leg and a pair of blue sandals was his footwear.

The two however, were more interested about the bundle of orange and black that he was carrying.

"Lucky us, we have Naruto for now, that means the war is still stalled." Anko mentioned and Kakashi nodded.

"Yes but who knows for how long? As it is now, with Naruto-kun knocked out like this, we can't possibly go searching for any of our students or Shizune let alone fight Uchiha Sasuke and Madara." Gai mentioned this with a frown and Anko asked a question, "What happened to him anyway?"

"I can't give out a full on diagnosis to Naruto's current condition, I'm not a medic nin like Sakura or Shizune, but if I have to guess, it would be sensory overload. The amount of chakra that I felt during that moment before being sucked was so enormous and the discharge that Madara was sending was no laughing matter either." Kakashi mentioned and then added helpfully, "The fact that Naruto was at the dead center of that vortex and the fact that he has a high sensory ability when he's in that form says a lot of what would have happened."

"So what do you propose we do?" Anko asked and Kakashi put his hands in his pockets.

"Since we're not in immediate danger, we'll just have to keep a low profile for now. We'll need a basic grasp as to where we landed. A small town should suffice enough for us to linger for a few days while Naruto is asleep. Once he recovers then we'll see what we can do from there. That is, if it's okay with you two since we can't possibly be moving with an incapacitated member on our side."

"Well you're the commander and it's better than nothing. I'll be the one to gather the needed info as to where we are then we can pan out from there. I'll also look if the villagers saw one of our brats or Shizune or on a worst case scenario, Sasuke or Madara. If by chance that either one of those two or both of them are in town, well, it's been nice knowing you, I'll come back within six hours, in the meantime, you guys stay put. If I don't come back by then, you'll know what to do." Anko said this and put her hands at the back of her head as she walked away. Kakashi stopped her for a moment there and reminded the only surviving member of the Recon team.

"Anko, no drastic measures, you got that? No unnecessary killing."

Anko turned her head to the copy ninja with a smirk and asked him, "What do you take me for?"

Kakashi shook his head with a sigh and turned to Gai, "Gai, we'll be discussing some escape plans on our own if Madara and or Sasuke are here and some ways to get in contact with our students. For the meantime, we'll be stuck with Anko gathering the necessary information while we set up camp."

Gai nodded and laid Naruto on the side of a tree. With a seal, Kakashi created a shadow clone and ordered it to gather some firewood and sticks to set up as a makeshift tent while the green clad Jounin collected huge leaves and clean water.

Kakashi gave a sigh as he sat by his blonde student.

"Its times like these that I wish Tenzou were with us. A shame that kouhai of mine was captured." Kakashi lamented briefly as he looked at the sky of dull grey clouds.

Another cloudy day, another name to mourn, somehow, Kakashi felt hopeless right now.

* * *

Some place else:

Slowly drifting into consciousness, his blurred vision began to regain their clarity as he looked up. The last thing he remembered was the hand of Kabuto reaching towards his face, Yamato confirmed that he was possibly rescued and felt a throbbing headache escape. The captain rose up and flinched slightly as a familiar voice was immediately within earshot when he groaned.

"He's awake!" A woman's voice and some of the people around him began to mumble.

"Yamato-taichou, thank goodness!" Shizune announced as he looked around. The ANBU captain saw Neji standing by a tree and Chouji by the side, to his right, he saw Shino and Sai who were sitting at the ground and looking at the scrolls, most likely doing an inventory check.

"Where…"

"We don't exactly know, Yamato-taichou, how we got here is a story crazy enough in itself. I would have asked that Neji-san or Shino-san to do some scouting for us but in our current situation, we can't afford it right now with you injured." Shizune mentioned this while running her glowing hand on Yamato to run a diagnosis. Tonton was sitting patiently by the Medic's side.

"Naruto… Was he captured?" Yamato asked and Shizune smiled and shook her head.

"No, Naruto wasn't captured when we last saw him. Anko-san made sure of it. I wouldn't say the same about you though."

Yamato was a bit embarrassed about that and looked down in a moment of shame, laughing awkwardly as he did so.

"Did we win?"

Shizune shook her head once more, "No, the war was a complete stalemate, the hard push to graveyard's mountain almost caused our commanding officers in disarray. Particularly Tsunade-sama, she was shaken up when Yakushi Kabuto summoned my deceased uncle."

Yamato scowled at this, "How is Hokage-sama doing?"

"She's doing fine, but the shock caused her to be restrained temporarily from the battlefield due to the psychological stress. Many things happened while you were accosted, but the final push to graveyard's mountain was what obliterated a huge chunk of the dwindling army. It's a miracle that Naruto's peers have managed to survive this long." Shizune mentioned and finished her diagnosis.

The medic turned her head towards Chouji, who was visibly the most physically able boy to do what she had in mind.

"Chouji-kun, please help Yamato-taichou up until we can get to the nearest town. Once there, I want Sai-kun and Shino-kun to gather some information on our location so that we can get back to the main force. Neji-kun, please help us locate the nearest route to a village that would accommodate us." Shizune said and she took command, Yamato protested at first saying he was alright but Tsunade's apprentice scowled at him.

"No. You're currently suffering from muscle atrophy, it's been months since you moved, you're lucky that you managed to survive for this long, Yamato-san."

Yamato had a small bead of sweat appearing at the back of his head and accepted the orders given to Chouji.

"Good grief, I missed out on a whole lot of events. I wish Sakura and the others are faring well." Yamato mentioned this while Chouji carried the man.

"We're just going to have to trust them to make it out of this. I just wish none of them would end up with either Madara or Uchiha Sasuke, especially Naruto." Neji said this while his Byakugan was activated. Sai and Shino nodded at this as they began their trek.

Sai spoke out the worst case scenario, "But given the circumstances, the probability of Naruto ending up with either of those two is high enough as it is. We all ended up separated and jumbled with circumstances unknown. If anything else, this puts both the alliance and Akatsuki in a precarious position."

"Can you tell me what happened as to why we got here?" Yamato asked this while being carried by the Akimichi. Shizune then began explaining the final push on Mountains' Graveyard and the eventual vortex that occurred soon after when Naruto and Sasuke began their bout.

Needless to say, Yamato had a lot to take in with that. The seemingly city wide vortex that swallowed them like a vacuum would certainly be unheard off. Such a wide scale time and space jutsu would certainly have required the chakra levels of the tailed beasts!

"We don't know what caused the transfer yet, but rest assured that it wasn't Madara's doing. The Gedo Mazo was pulled from the ground when the vortex began sucking everything like a whirlpool."

"Then that would explain how I managed to get out of that statue's root…" Yamato said this and was surprised by the fact that the reason why he was even alive was through an unknown incident. It was then that he, like the rest of the group, thought about one question that lingered in their heads.

What could have done this?

* * *

In another place:

Shikamaru sighed and couldn't believe his luck. Just when he thought that everything couldn't have gone more troublesome, this situation bit him back hard.

"I really need to keep my thoughts out of recognizing foreshadows, it really just sinks me deeper and deeper into anything I wouldn't want to get involved in." Shikamaru mentioned this as Kiba scoffed at his remark, "Would you like some cheese with that whine?"

Shikamaru only groaned at this and turned to his back and saw Sakura, Hinata, Ino and Tenten on his group. Being with a girl was tough, but being with multiple girls was hell.

"Shikamaru, do you have any idea to where we are exactly? You're the Fourth Division General's right hand man! You should have a map in your equipment!" Ino said rather impatiently. All of them were getting impatient, rather. It wasn't the fact they were lost, but the fact that any of their teammates would have end up with Sasuke and Madara. They were witnesses to the battle; they saw just what happened before Madara let out that powerful repulsion wave.

"For the last time, Ino, I'm trying to find out where we are! I've been checking the map every hour on the hour! There isn't something that would tell us where we are right now! We'll get there when we get there!" Shikamaru said in frustration as Kiba was snickering at his side.

"Shikamaru-san, might I suggest that we split up then? Therefore we could cover more ground!" Lee suggested and Shikamaru shook his head.

"I can't take that risk. Right now, Sasuke or Madara might be close. That's why we need to move fast. Once we get into a village preferably, a town with a sizeable military or something of the like, we can use it as a hiding place until we have an idea as to where we are and how we are going to get in contact with the others. If any of us breaks from the group then the probability of being killed by either one of them would significantly increase, at least with a group we can have a slightly higher percentage of winning or even taking Sasuke down. You should all understand the situation we're in here." Shikamaru explained as they finally decided to take a rest, no doubt weary from what happened earlier.

"So what's going to happen to us then?" Tenten asked, she had been the calmest member of this little group for a while, most likely because her division was the one that suffered the most number of casualties so far. That included Chouji's father, but Chouji only cried after their encounters when he heard the news. Shikamaru could do nothing but stay by his best friend's side that day. Tenten was the luckiest member to be alive that day. Shikamaru stated it rather honestly as what to expect.

"I can't say for sure. We lucked out when many of our strongest peers aren't with us, Naruto and Neji are in who knows where, the same can be said to Sai and Shino. But no matter what it takes, we'll make through this alive. But we should all be patient and trust me while we move. Hinata and Kiba should be good for lookouts if Madara and Sasuke are close. The closer we are to town, the better."

Sakura then suggested to the group, "That being the case, if we are going to the nearest town, then it's best to gather enough information if any of the villagers saw any of our friends or teachers. If the worst case scenario were to occur such as Madara or Sasuke, then we're required to evacuate and head for the opposite direction for now, is that what you're saying?"

Shikamaru nodded, "That's right. We can't possibly take them on with this much fighting force. We'd be killed. This is a reminder especially to you Sakura, I know you feel that Sasuke is your responsibility but don't be an idiot. Your reckless act put everyone including yourself in danger. If Naruto hadn't come in time, you wouldn't be standing here."

Sakura suddenly looked gloomy as Ino and Hinata comforted her.

"I'm sorry. You didn't have to rub it in." She said while looking down as f her puppy was kicked.

Ino looked back at Shikamaru and shouted at the pineapple head, "Shikamaru! You didn't have to be so blunt about it!"

Kiba chuckled for a moment as Shikamaru looked exasperated while saying, "Please don't tell me it's going to be like this for the whole trip."

Kiba wanted to add something rather snide as a remark when a sudden invasion of a familiar scent drew him in. His eyes suddenly twitched as Akamaru barked in confirmation.

Shikamaru scowled and asked the Inuzuka, "What is it?"

"I smell blood and it's coming from three o' clock."

"Hinata…"

"I'm already on it." The Hyuuga girl mentioned as she activated her doujutsu once more and zoomed in to where Kiba pointed out.

"I see two people, one is down while the other is standing up, and something is approaching them. I can't fairly describe it since I've never seen a creature like it from anywhere."

"Yosh! Then we must save these people and show this creature our springtime of youth!"

Tenten shook her head and scolded her teammate, "Lee! Don't be hasty! If you remember what Shikamaru said, we're on the run as well! We can't just be sidetracked like this!"

Shikamaru however, had a different idea, "No, this couldn't have come at a better time. If those two are from the local folk then we won't have to search for a town anymore. Lee and Kiba, you two are the fastest members in our group; you two intercept that thing before it comes into contact with the civilians. Tenten and Hinata will provide long range support and surprise attacks while you two face it head on…"

"… Don't forget Akamaru!" Kiba interjected and Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Of course, we can't forget about Akamaru. Ino and Sakura, You two should take those people to safety while I try to pin it down. Let's move out."

With that, all of them nodded and jumped to the treetops.

* * *

With Anko:

Anko, being Orochimaru's former apprentice, had a knack for taking in information of the most minor detail. When she finally made it to the nearest town, she was careful not to be noticed by anyone and decided to do a simple Henge of a plain looking woman when she was inside.

Anko made sure that she remained hidden in plain sight as she went inside the town. As she looked around, she noticed several different things that she had never seen before. First was the attire of many of the civilians, while many of the attires that were far too different from what she had seen during her trips, they were wearing shirts pants and footwear that weren't present in any other nation she had seen so far. The structures were far different, too symmetrical and too small scale for a bustling town such as this. The designs on the buildings weren't something she had seen during her travels outside Fire Country especially the creatures that were sculpted at the center of the town. A winged man (woman?) she couldn't tell by the robe that the human wore, it was too big and too loose. The statue carried with it a jug and had been turned over with its shoulder as water cascaded down its mouth.

After seeing it for a few seconds, she yet again resumed her reconnaissance and went to the most common area where gossip and old wives' tales abound, the market.

When she did get there, she scowled as she noticed one glaring problem that she could have noticed earlier.

The signs placed over a fresh batch of produce, they had almost the same characters as some of the signboards that were placed in other parts of the town, she had disregarded those signs earlier as she noticed they were metallic and many had rusts so she simply assumed that the writing was ineligible. But that would be impossible. The writing system doesn't exist anywhere within the Elemental Countries!

But perhaps the biggest shock to her was when she asked a question to one of the villagers.

"Excuse me. I'm new to this town and I've been lost for some time, may I inquire as to what the name of this town is and what country are we in?"

One of the women, seemingly middle aged, looked at the other before saying, "My dear, this is Clover Town in the Kingdom of Fiore, from where exactly did you come from that you had to question what country we're in?"

Anko scratched the back of her head at this and looked rather sheepish, "I'm a traveller you see. I like to go places and see a lot of new things. I don't exactly have a permanent place to stay."

The women seemed to look convinced at this and then asked further, "Well, where were you born then, dear?"

"From a relatively big village named Konoha. I don't suppose you know of that place, right?"

The women shook their heads at this, "I'm sorry, dear, but we don't know this Konoha village that you're talking about, maybe perhaps in the far eastern regions of the continent, but not here."

Anko now had to take a deep breath and calm down. There was no way Konoha isn't an unknown village, it was a village part of the alliance! One of the major villages that kept the stability of power within the Elemental Countries! To not know of the Leaf or at least Fire Country is preposterous!

"I see, thank you for your time then ladies, you've been very much helpful." Anko bowed for a moment and turned her back from the two women who mumbled to each other.

"What a nice young woman. From what I can gather, bowing with gratitude is a gesture that came from the far-east."

"Yes, I most certainly remember it being that way. But I must ask why would a woman like her be travelling alone?"

"She must know something about magic then. Why else would someone from so far away be able to survive the creatures that exist outside these walls?"

"But she barely looks the type, if I do say so; she looks much like a common housewife."

"That indeed."

Anko turned to a corner and dispelled her jutsu quickly as she jumped up to the rooftops and made a beeline back into the forest whilst barely being visible. The signs of the stuff that brought alarm bells ringing in her head was swirling in a mass of paranoia that she wanted Kakashi to know immediately, even if he might just consider her insane, these things that she saw with very own eyes, the statues, the architecture, the designs, the writing system, and the damn town itself. All of it kept telling her that they weren't in the Elemental Countries anymore.

She dashed to the forest at blinding speeds, this urgent news was what mattered right now, if by any chance that her conclusion to this was real, she would utterly freak out, even if it was so farfetched and so out of the box even with the evidence and signs presented to her, her mind would simply not allow the idea to creep through her thoughts and accept it for what it was. She didn't like it. She utterly denied it saying such a thing would be impossible to do that there was simply no way for it to happen.

* * *

In another place:

Fear was an emotion easy to grasp, easy to understand, and chaotic enough to bring out all sorts of different emotions. Anger, hate, mortification, apprehensiveness, despair, and even fear itself manifests into a jumble of emotions that explode like dynamite.

Mirajane stared up at her brother, driven out of control by attempting to take over a powerful monster's soul. In between them stood Lisana, her younger sister, the youngest of all three siblings, standing between her and their beloved brother whose form was being taken over by the king of beasts.

"Brother! It's me, Lisana! Please, try to remember!" She shouted as the scarlet beast approached. Its purple eyes seemingly shone a little and smoke billowed out of its mouth as the dark clouds now gave in to rain once more.

"Please, brother, seeing you like this is hurting us… Please try to regain control!"

The beast however, would have none of it. It growled as it walked towards them, saliva dripping out of its mouth, looking famished as it gazed at the two humans. Without as much as a word, it gave a loud and deafening roar and went after them, without any hesitation at all.

"Dynamic Entry!"

A green streak passed by the two girls, looking as much as a comet as it smashed on to the face of the King of Beasts, sending it flying and crashing to the ground at a good twenty feet.

By now, the person's features came to view as a boy wearing a green jumpsuit, along with a similarly coloured green vest and a pair of orange leg warmers on the boy's lower thighs. His hands were wrapped around very long straps of bandages reaching just below his elbows, a bowl haircut a pair of big doe eyes and the thickest pair of eyebrows anyone has ever seen.

"Foul beast that which harms unarmed civilians! Prepare yourself with my burning passion and youth!"

Lisana and Mira looked stunned for a moment before they looked at each other. The boy certainly had a very peculiar way of talking, matching his appearance to boot. But this was something the boy shouldn't have messed around with; he shouldn't have jumped into the situation!

"What are you doing?" Lisana exclaimed as she walked up to the Green clad chuunin who looked rather dumbfounded by her reaction, wasn't it obvious that he just saved her?

"That beast is my brother! He's gone berserk because of the take over magic! Please don't do any unnecessary harm to him because of this!" Lisana shouted, but it was significantly ignored when Elfman rose from his position and charged at them once more.

Lee was once more prepared to take a stance when a person with wild chestnut brown hair, tattoo markings on both his cheeks wearing a black long sleeve underneath a green flack jacket and equally dark pants, to his side was a dog, a very big one at that, as swift as the boy with the facial tattoos popped up from the bushes and ran wildly around the beast, slashing and tearing through the man's seemingly near impervious hide.

"What the hell is up with that dude's skin? Damn thing is as tough as steel!" Kiba shouted indefinitely as both he and Akamaru jumped at the side of Lee while the monster remained agitated.

The monster was about to charge again until it sensed danger coming from the treetops and a flurry of knives flew down from the heavens and descended upon him. Acting on instinct, the monster backpedalled and tried to avoid any and all sharp projectiles that planted themselves to the ground. Until another person, this time a girl with long flowing blue hair, pale skin as white as snow and equally pale lavender eyes wearing a dark long sleeved shirt with a red spiral design by the shoulder and equally black pants and a green flack jacket, appeared from behind with palms wide open and pushing it direct at the monster's back.

"Jyuuken (Gentle Fist)!"

With two strikes, the girl and the monster were now at opposite directions until it collapsed.

"You girls alright?" a boy whose hair was held back to a ponytail looking like a pineapple mentioned as he stepped just behind Kiba and Lee asked the two girls who were on the ground looking quite shocked.

"Please, stop whatever you're doing to my brother! He isn't himself! He lost control of his magic when he attempted to take an S-class monster!" Lisana pleaded to the group and Shikamaru stopped in his train of thought at this.

"S-class? A brother losing control over his ability? Shit, this is going to be difficult." Shikamaru complained and scratched the back of his head for this.

Upon hearing the aforementioned word, Hinata quickly jumped away from the scene and went over to their side.

"I'm sorry to say this folks, looks like we aren't exterminating monsters anytime soon. So instead of elimination, we're going to subdue that thing until this guy's jutsu ends." Shikamaru stated as the rest all had a frown on their faces. It was obvious that this would be far more difficult than it was originally planned.

"I'm revising my strategy now. Since Kage Nui (Shadow Needles) wouldn't work well with that guy in restraining, we've got no choice but to nick it down with non-lethal force until Ino manages to probe that thing's mind."

Kiba voiced his opinion on the matter. "Are you nuts? If that thing's an S-Class, then consider yourself dead! It's hard enough to put that thing down, now you want us to restrain it? I knew there was something wrong about this."

"What will you have me do then?" Tenten then appeared to Shikamaru's side as the brunette gave the necessary instructions, "Keep that thing away and corner it enough to let Ino use her jutsu. I'll provide mid-range support and I'll try to immobilize that thing long enough for Ino to use her jutsu."

A girl with pink hair then appeared to their side, wearing the same outfit as that of the pineapple headed chuunin that was giving out commands.

"Then I'll be Lee-san's back up. I'll do most of the distractions while Lee-san blitzes." Sakura said as she wore her black gloves and palmed her right fist.

"Hinata, can you tell me how much chakra that thing has?" Shikamaru asked, he needed an estimate as to how long can his Shadow Needles take hold and Ino was already gathering chakra for her jutsu.

The girl with the white eyes nodded and looked at the monster intently as she said to the pineapple head, "The chakra build up indicates that it's Jounin level, from what I can see, the chakra is acting like a fuel to maintain the transformation. You can probably bind that thing for a few seconds before Ino-san's jutsu takes effect."

Shikamaru cursed.

"This is going to be such a drag. Ino, you better stay put and be sure to time your jutsu well. Remember that we're trying to restore his psyche back. Whatever that guy's ability is, it's interfering with his mental processes, you're the best bet to end this." Shikamaru mentioned this as he grabbed something from his pouch.

"Who are you people, why are you wearing such similar uniforms? Are you… Are you from the council?" Lisana asked nervous that these people were part of the magic council sent to Fairy Tail for another issued warning.

"Can't you tell by our headbands? We're part of the Shinobi Alliance! What are you doing here, anyway? It's dangerous to go out of towns when war is happening! Do you want to get killed?" Kiba asked, as the monster soon growled and crouched down, studying the group and looking for an opening.

"What do you mean there's a war? The Kingdom of Fiore isn't at war with any nation right now!" Lisana objected and many of the ninja soon stopped dead in their tracks as it entered into their heads.

The elemental nations do not use the word 'kingdom' to describe a land of autonomous governance; that would fall into the criteria of a country. Another thing that bothered them was that in all of their studies of history and geography within the Elemental Countries, there is no country named Fiore settled within the map.

It was then that the King of Beasts saw its chance, it instantly _moved_ like a speeding bullet towards them rampaging like a wild bull. Akamaru had Lisana and Mirajane ride him and put them at a much more comfortable zone to where the battle wouldn't affect the two mages. Because from the looks of things, everything was about to get even more devastating.

"Fiore? Where in the goddamn map is that?" Kiba asked with a curse as they jumped up and separated when the monster charged at them.

Shikamaru simply shrugged at this as he finally grabbed what he was searching for from his pouch and unleashed a hail of shuriken at the beast that were merely deflected by its skin.

"Unbelievable, no amount of projectile weapons would work on it. The skin is barely even scratched." Shikamaru then landed to a tree branch while Sakura and Lee faced the monster head on.

"Sakura-san, I'm counting on your strength to keep him busy!" Lee said this and crouched down; unlocking the leg weights placed on his leg and unfurled them. Without Gai around, he would have to decide on his own weather or not he should go all out. Lee realised long ago, that Gai-sensei wouldn't be around all the time to tell him what to do. That he was aware and he knew sometimes, that he just had to disobey Gai's rule for what was truly needed.

With a mighty cry Lee tossed the heavy objects straight to the beast who looked dumbfounded as much as anyone who saw their weights as weapons. Nevertheless, its instincts told it to dodge and quickly felt two minor tremors on the ground. It looked back and saw the two leg weights created small craters around it to signify how much weight Lee was carrying before a kick had collided with its cheek sending it flying to the opposite side. Lee then appeared at the monster's back and gave a powerful spinning kick.

"Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Whirlwind)!"

The monster was forced to turn around by that powerful kick as it staggered from the blow. Regaining its footing, it swung its mighty arm around thus forcing Rock Lee to halt his attack and jump back, giving the monster enough time to shatter the ground with its immense strength and staggered Lee back. Seeing the perfect opportunity, it charged at Lee with a deafening roar and blinding speed and like a crimson streak, instantly closed the gap between it and the green clad chuunin, a fist held back as he was about to strike Lee.

"If it's power we're talking about, I'm not going to lose!" Sakura shouted as she appeared right next to Lee with a simple Body Flicker and her own fist reeled back, when the monster let go of the punch, Sakura did so as well, gathering enough chakra and building it in her right hand as she collided her Oukashou (Cherry Blossom Impact) directly at the monster's fist.

**SMASH!**

The result was a reverberating impact all around them as the local fowls that live in the area, flew up at the sudden disturbance. The force sent both Sakura and the beast flying from the epicentre of the event forcing Lee to jump back and landed right beside Sakura who gained her footing and creating a minor trench when she skidded on the ground.

"Didn't Hinata strike that thing's tenketsu points? It should be paralyzed right about now!"

As if on cue, Hinata had jumped into the fray once more, her hands ready to strike the monster down as it felt a bit disoriented from the attack, it turned around and saw Hinata dashing at him but sidestepped instead once its eyes were on her. Another hail of knives then bombarded the area around the beast, which dodged while his skin deflected the knives.

It tilted its head to the side as it finally noticed that the knives couldn't scratch him, if this was what the amount of damage that these people could do then he had nothing to fear.

"Don't let go of your breath just yet!" Tenten stated as she clasped her hand together for a weird hand gesture and soon enough, the handles from the knives started glowing.

Thanks to the mind of the beast, it could not have predicted any sooner that Tenten didn't just throw knives into the field, she threw exploding projectiles. With that brilliant flash of light, the area exploded several times while the impact made the earth tremble slightly as smoke billowed out from the center of the explosion.

While the smoke was impeding the monster's vision, Hinata's certainly wasn't. With that necessary cover, she instantly closed in on the target and held out her middle and index fingers out and began performing one of her clan's most prized techniques.

"Hakke Rokujuuyonsho (Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Strikes)!"

It was then that Hinata's hand flowed like quick silver, gracefully and dangerously weaving her fingers like an intricate web, driving them to every tenketsu point that she could see, her attack while unlike Neji who was faster and drove his fingers like lightning to a pole and struck hard like a sword piercing an armour, Hinata was more graceful, more refined and more controlled but just as dangerous. When Hinata was about to finish her attack with double palm strike, the monster gave an inhuman roar as Hinata began closing every tenketsu point in its body before she ended it with a double palm strike that forced it out of the smoke.

"Sakura, don't let it regain its footing!" Shikamaru commanded as he began pulling out some ninja wire while he jumped from tree to tree.

"On it!" Sakura said and jumped up and prepared for another Oukashou when they noticed that it was decreasing in size. Hinata's attack had considerably reduced the monster's fighting power. Lisana and Mirajane, who had noticed this, became dangerously aware of what was happening.

"No, stop! You're going to kill him!" Mira finally shouted but was ignored, instead a hand was placed firmly on her shoulder by a blonde haired girl who said to them, "No, don't worry; we know what we're doing."

"How can you say that? Elfman's magic is running out! Don't continue this further!" Lisana shouted and Ino shook her head.

"Just watch and don't interrupt, you want your brother back do you?"

It was then that the two nodded and Ino gave them a reassuring smile, "Then put your trust in us."

With that said Sakura crashed to the ground and created a massive crater that caused multiple fissures all around her as some of the rocks from underground wedged upwards.

Elfman staggered, as the pain was too much to handle, the soul of the King of Beasts was slowly starting to lose its grip on him, although weakening, it was still strong, but that didn't meant that he wasn't now aware of what was happening to his body.

"Kiba, do it!"

Shikamaru commanded as he began weaving his hands and formed a seal and the shadow beneath him began to rise up.

"Ninpo: Kage Nui (Ninja Art: Shadow Needles)!"

"Gijuu Ninpo: Shikyaku no Jutsu (Beast Mimicry Ninja Art: Four Legs techniques)!"

Kiba and Akamaru then dashed around the battlefield as they surrounded the beast that was already staggering, both man and beast ran around Elfman in circles as they chipped away at some of the monster's skin. With that done, Akamaru and Kiba scattered away and began cutting some of the ninja wire that Shikamaru had set up. The tensioned wire snapped and lashed all around as Shikamaru's shadow needles caught it whilst making their way towards Elfman.

The possessed man was soon entangled by one of the needles as the wire that came along with it, trapped him instantly. With its strength barely being cut down and the tensioned wires vaguely keeping him in place, Shikamaru's hand struggled in maintaining the Shadow Sewing and hurriedly shouted to Ino, "Ino! Stop this guy right now, I can't hold him off for long!"

"I'm already on it! Ninpo: Shin Hakuran no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Extensive Mind Reading Skill)!" A second later, Ino's body went limp and she fell to the ground. Lisana caught the woman and Elfman's struggling suddenly came to a halt.

"W-What happened?" Mira asked and Lee was the one who answered her question, "I cannot say for certain as to what it is that is taking place right now, but know that our friend is helping your brother gain back his reasoning."

Shikamaru sighed at this and his jutsu began to hold. The shadow user turned around to the girls and asked them something that they had trouble understanding from what the short haired girl said, "Care to repeat on where exactly we are, miss?"

Lisana nodded in an absentminded fashion as she began telling them about Fiore, the history, the people and the guilds that make up most of these 'mages' that use the power of 'magic'.

"Hey, Shikamaru, I normally don't curse this out loud, but can you allow me just this once?" Kiba asked and Shikamaru waved him off, "I'm not your mother, Kiba."

"Okay."

With that, Kiba screamed from the top his lungs and cursed like a sailor.

"SON OF A FUCKING BITCH! THIS IS THE MOST FUCKED UP SITUATION WE'VE HAD SINCE THE WHOLE WAR! HOW IN THE FUCKING HELL DID WE END UP IN THIS SHITTY SITUATION?"

"Wow, look at him go. He's worse than Mira-nee when she has her period." Lisana mentioned as Mirajane was beat red at that and protested to her younger sister, "I DO NOT ACT LIKE THAT AND I DON'T SWEAR LIKE A FUCKING SAILOR!"

"I see what you mean." Sakura said with a strained smile on her face while the others were chuckling.

"So what now?" Lisana asked, as she looked at the others, Tenten was the one to answer.

"Now, we wait. We wait until Ino sorts out any jumbled mental processes your brother is suffering from."

"Who exactly are you people?" Mirajane asked as she noticed how experienced these people were in fighting, they all had impeccable timing in their attacks, openings were quickly covered by each other, they take any given opportunity and abuse it to the point that it gave way for multiple ones.

She had never seen people like them; they were good, too good for any freelancing mage. It was as if they were professionals or to be more precise, veterans.

"People who aren't from around here, we came to this place because of some freak accident that sent some of us in different directions. We're currently looking for them while avoiding a certain person." Shikamaru helpfully inquired as Mira asked, "Okay, so if you were sent here by accident, what was dog boy over there talking about when he was screaming his soul out into the wild?"

"Hey!"

Shikamaru sighed at this and glared at Kiba who simply took a step back and sighed, looks like he would be fabricating more lies ahead. Sighing, the general of the fourth division merely looked out at the setting sun while its orange glow slowly disappeared.

* * *

Oshibana Town:

A man slurred by the back alleyways that night, intending to go back to the place where his guild was located in the outskirts of town. Being a member for a Dark Guild usually didn't involve that much on job offerings. Mostly because the jobs were being screened by the Magic Council in Era, many of the unofficial missions posted into their wall may be high paying, but those missions took a lot of guts and skill to accomplish. He's surprised that many dark guilds still exist because of the magic council and how many high paying jobs were offered to these Dark Guilds. Perhaps this was the work of the Balam Alliance, he didn't know. But the fact that he could still bring food to his table even if he was associated with a Dark Guild was enough.

Rounding up to a corner, he was suddenly stopped when someone held his shoulder, he turned around, and felt a powerful shove that sent him to the wall, pinning him while a sharp stinging pain forced him to yelp and look at his right shoulder.

The man quickly sobered up as he saw the sword impaling him by his shoulder and a pair of red eyes with three commas swirling about the iris, stared at him with nothing but apathy.

"You will tell me just where I am right now." The boy spoke, as he suggested this words while the three tomoe in his eyes kept spinning, putting the drunken man in a trance by this person's hypnotic magic.

As the person spoke and as Uchiha Sasuke obtained the necessary information he needed, he pulled Kusanagi out of the man's shoulders as he looked down, "I was spared…"

"Who said anything about sparing you?" Sasuke mentioned and in one fluid motion, swung his Kusanagi sideways. The man stood for a moment in shock as Sasuke swung his sword to rid itself of the blood before sheathing it back into its metallic scabbard. A line soon appeared by the man's neck and soon, it began to stretch to the other end, until finally, his head fell off and a sudden geyser of blood erupted from the neck and sprayed upwards before the head fell down on the ground and tumbled as did his body.

Sasuke left with not but an apathetic look on his face, going out of town and quickly making his way towards this 'guild' that this man was building. He needed to gather information, and this would be the best place for him to see the ins and outs of this new world and how he should get back he also needed to see if a certain blonde made his way here as well, killing that person would mean that the only wall that was standing between him and Konoha would be destroyed.

He had sworn to kill Uzumaki Naruto and he will follow through it even if it costs him his life.

* * *

To be continued…

Here's basically the total overhaul of "Crossing the River Gates". I lost all of my data in that thing when I was reformatting so I had to give up in gathering it and decided to write this in favour over my first and honestly? I find this better than the first.

Tell me what you think I'll see to it if I can continue it.


	2. Picking Up the Pieces

Chapter One: Picking Up the Pieces

* * *

Woodlands:

Neji had been pandering for a while about what happened to them. He was beginning to suspect that everything was certainly not in a way that they should be expecting. A lot of things threw him off while they were walking. He didn't exactly know what he was feeling exactly, but damn his intuition telling him that something was off in this situation of theirs. Shizune hadn't been able to read the map yet, probably because they weren't in a town where they could determine just where they are. The whole thing about it was starting to annoy him, how much more would the answer elude him?

His thoughts however, were suddenly interrupted when he saw several small houses just beyond the hill. Neji put aside his worrying and told his makeshift 'team' about it.

"I see a relatively small village just by the north of here." Neji announced and Shizune gave a sigh of relief before saying to the Hyuuga, "Thank goodness, we can let our guard down for a moment while we're in it. Neji-kun, please lead the way."

Shino, who had been silent throughout the whole trip, kept looking around the scenery with a frown while Sai was quietly following the current team leader, Shizune.

"The insects have been restless since we got here." Shino suddenly mentioned as they continued to walk. Sai instantly picked up what Shino mumbled, but couldn't exactly decipher as to what Shino really had meant.

"Is something the matter, Shino-san?" Asked the former ROOT member, to which Shino answered.

"My insects have been restless since we have arrived here. I could not bring a proper conclusion to their behaviour as of yet as I cannot be certain as to what they might have a problem with. But it is clear that it's making me uncertain as well."

Neji, who had heard of the conversation, found it the least bit comforting that even Shino has had a feeling that something was terribly off about the whole thing. The quiet forest and the wind rustling against the tree branches didn't seem to placate the anxiety and nervousness that all of them were experiencing right now.

"Uncertainty can have a lot of effects for the mental psyche, if I must say." Shizune helpfully reminded them and then continued, "All of us right now have this feeling of isolation in this place. Every one of us feels it when we're here, but this is the first time that I felt such an emotion in a heavily dense forest. Normally it would simply be in the towns not in here, but this is actually the first time that I've felt like this."

Neji silently took note of this, so everyone was feeling that something was terribly off about the whole situation. Now it wasn't just mere paranoia on his part. Neji took comfort in that at least all of them had been feeling disjointed in this place.

Once they reached to the outskirts of the small village, they happen to stumble on a man that looked well built wearing something close to a primitive tribesman and was carrying a bundle of hay over his shoulders. Shizune stepped in front and asked him, "Excuse me sir, but we would like to know where the nearest inn please, we've been scouring the land for many hours now and one of us is currently injured."

The man however was shaking like a leaf as he looked at them, dropping the item he was carrying as he asked, "W-Why are you all in the same uniforms? Are you from Era's Magic Council?"

'_Magic? That wouldn't certainly be the case but… Era? __Where in Earth is that located?' _Shizune thought, as bewilderment took stage on to her face, to which Neji answered for her, "No, we're not from this _Era Magic Council_, if you hadn't noticed from the emblem we wear, we members of the joint military of the Alliance and we would…"

"ALLIANCE! You're part of the alliance?" The man suddenly backed away instantly as he looked like his soul just got ripped of from his body, he was deathly white.

"Neji-kun, please stand down, I'll be the one to do the talking for us, it feels like you're intimidating him." Shizune mentioned as she gave a strained smile. Sai helpfully added with a smile of his own, "With Neji-san's eyes and default expression, anyone would be scared."

Chouji and Yamato looked at their pale skinned teammate then back to Neji who simply scoffed off at the unintended insult.

"Well, aside from that, back to the matter at hand, sir, we would like to know just where…"

"S-STAY BACK, EVILDOERS! AS A MEMBER OF CAIT SHELTER, I WILL DEFEND THIS VILLAGE WITH MY LIFE! DOGS OF THE BALAM ALLIANCE! PREPARE YOURSELVES!"

"H-Hold on, mister, don't be hasty!" Chouji mentioned as many of them were left utterly confused. They were about to approach the man calmly when they saw several villagers approaching at them in alarm.

Shizune sighed in defeat, it seemed like this little misunderstanding would escalate to something much, much worse.

"Perhaps it would be prudent to incapacitate them at this situation?" Shino asked and Shizune groaned, "No, Shino-kun, we won't be doing any unnecessary violence here. Try to reason out as best as you can."

It would be a very long, long day for all of them right now.

* * *

Shikamaru's team:

"Let me get this straight." Mirajane began talking as she sat in front of the ninjas while waiting for Ino to finish her jutsu.

"You're telling me that you…" Mira pointed to Shikamaru and then continued, "… Are members of a joint paramilitary force of six powerful nations that hail from the far-east locked in a war against an organization that's bent on world domination through a living statue and has their own private army of clones and undead zombies?"

Shikamaru forgot to mention the 'alternate dimension' part of his explanation but he didn't want to be labelled as a complete nut. That and the story were already pretty hard to believe. Shikamaru could only give a sigh and nodded.

"It sounds terribly unbelievable." Mirajane commented as she shook her head, "But since you saved our lives, I'm willing to believe you for now…" Another pause and she scowled at them, "Unless you're from a dark guild."

If it weren't for the fact that he was holding the king of beasts in place while Ino did her jutsu, he would have shivered.

Damn these overbearing women. Speaking of overbearing, his teammate Kiba was looking quite distracted as they were waiting for Ino. The Inuzuka was looking at Mira's general direction and had a blank look on his face, until he noticed a small trickle of blood falling down his nose. Shikamaru sighed at this and looked up. Great, now it's just a matter of time when Sakura takes notice…

"Kiba, you damn pervert, you're just as bad as Naruto! I'm going to kill you!" Sakura suddenly stood up and Kiba, who had just as easily heard Sakura's shriek, snapped out of his funk and instantly back away from Sakura who was by now, being restrained by Lee and Tenten.

"Wow, you guys can be a rowdy bunch as well, I think you'll fit into our guild quite nicely at that." Lisanna commented as she was talking to the shy Hyuuga girl, asking them about some of their exploits before coming into this place. Hinata could only give small details of what they did and what it was that they had been trying to fight for. To this, the Hyuuga girl was reminded of the blonde and her cheeks slowly gave off a crimson hue. The fact that Sakura spoke his name just made it worse.

"Receive your punishment like a man!"

"Sakura-san please calm down! Beating up Kiba would do us no good!"

Shikamaru only shook his head once more and looked back at the slumped form of the King of Beasts. He scowled momentarily and hoped Ino would be back soon. Sitting like this was getting tiring and he could swear that Mira was glaring daggers at him.

Inside Elfman's mind:

_Ino viewed the wooden corridor in complete silence, the wooden doors gave of a solemn but eerie silence as the walls were giving off small but noticeable fissures. Such a tranquil mind was contradictory to what was really going on outside, as she began opening doors left and right, she probed Elfman's mind to where his consciousness actually lies._

_When she reached for the fifth door on the left, she looked at the man who had half of his body consumed by the beast's appearance that was outside. His right half was being completely taken over._

_Ino looked at first in silent analysis as he saw the man thrash about and doubled over in pain._

_Many outside the clan didn't know this, but the Yamanaka knew that this was just a clear metaphor of how a mind works. From the looks of things, the monster's half of the personality that composed the Elfman in this very room was the id that represented primary desires. Food, safety, sex, it was all part of this force's functions. It was easy to see that the monster's version of taking over was typical to that of the likes of Orochimaru's cursed seal. It takes over consciously or subconsciously depending on the emotions and brain patterns suggested by the user. Although the pattern was easy enough to decipher, the problem was since this was the id, where the most basic instincts are there for the entitlement of self preservation and pleasure seeking are located, it means the subconscious and the even the consciously aware person itself can be taken over in an instant, the spread can be rapid if it isn't noticed immediately._

"_W-what are you doing here?" Elfman asked, as he finally noticed the blonde girl who was looking at him with a frown._

"_I'm a mind walker. I specialize in techniques that concern the psyche."_

"_G-Get away… This monster is driving me insane! He's going to kill you!" Elfman warned as the monster instantly took over and charged at her, its mouth showcased the sharp jagged teeth that were inside. Ino, however, remained unfazed as the monster charged at her._

_Just as the King of Beasts charged at her head on, it felt a sudden force blocked it and sent it back crashing to the other side of the room._

"_H-How…" Elfman asked as he held his head while the monster side of him wailed._

"_I'm a mind walker, remember? In this place, I can do anything especially when I've breached your mental defences. From here on I can do anything that I want from reconfiguring your mind to become a mindless servant to leaving you brain dead. A small configuration is all it takes for me to tear this mind down." Ino mentioned as he approached Elfman who was visibly struggling._

"_Then please, put a stop to this thing!" He pleaded and Ino simply raised her hand and flicked the monster's forehead, separating it from Elfman._

_When she did so, she noticed a small chain extended and elongated from Elfman as the monster was flat on the ground with its leg tied to the chain as well. It landed unceremoniously on the ground with an undignified tug as the chains were rattled._

"_Not good." Ino commented and Elfman asked why. Ino simply grabbed the chains and explained._

"_You see this chain here? This is a representation of a part of your personality, or to be more precise, your id."_

"_My what?" Elfman asked and he was obviously confused._

"_Your personality is divided by three parts, the id, the sense of instinct that governs basic needs, your ego, the one who decides what is a realistically sound judgement and your superego, the one that governs all forms of moral discernment. Right now, this monster contains your id, your desires and your reactions to all your basic needs like food and water. It seems that the monster has assimilated to your personality for far too long to be comfortable in. This is only a temporary solution to your problem. From now on, you will have to struggle against it and suppress it on your own. I can't do much else because if I erase that thing out of your mind, you'll be affected as well and you have a high possibility to become insane or worse, end up shutting off all your organs and wind up dead. I don't know how to suppress these things because I never experienced them, but there is one person who could possibly help you in that particular field."_

_Elfman had his eyes opened and looked at Ino with succeeding interest._

"_Who might that be? Please tell me! I need to learn how to control this!"_

"_I don't know if he could help because the way something was incorporated to him was a different method to yours. But he knows what's currently going on with you. The problem is, he's not within our group at the moment and we're currently searching for him…" With that, Ino clasped her hands together and the technique ended._

Back outside:

Ino groaned as she got up, she felt her back ache a little as she looked over to the slumped form of the King of the Beasts that was slowly receding back to its human form.

"Elfman-nii-chan!" Lisanna shouted as did Mirajane as they dashed over to their brother.

"I take it was a success?" Shikamaru asked as Ino cradled her head a little.

"Partially, the encroachment from the monster was too far gone to fully disconnect it from the victim."

Sakura then took this opportunity to see Elfman's injuries.

"What does that entail?" Shikamaru asked, normally he wouldn't push for detailed answers but being the Kazekage's right hand man in the army and by consequence, a field strategist, Shikamaru grew to understand the importance of having all the answers he needed. It's what made his division survive the longest throughout the entire war.

"It means that the monster is now a part of him as it is him being a part of it, just like Naruto and the Kyuubi's predicament." Ino explained as she got up and Shikamaru stretched his leg that grew tired from crouching.

"That doesn't sound so good."

"It was the only way to stop him without killing him, remember?" Ino responded and Shikamaru wordlessly stood up.

Sakura, who had been assessing Elfman to see if there were anymore problems, mentioned to the shinobi group with a frown, "It looks like we'll be here for a while. Elfman-san has suffered several fractures around his arm where I punched him and he's currently suffering from mild to moderate exhaustion. If we decide to go to the closest town tonight, it would be very bad for his health."

Kiba snorted a laugh at that, "Geez Sakura, you sure don't know how to hold back! If that guy was normal he would have most likely died!"

Mirajane, Lisanna and especially Sakura didn't find it amusing at all.

"Oh that is it! Get back here, Kiba, after I'm done with you, you'd wish I neutered you instead!" Sakura threatened as she rolled sleeves up and was about to go after the Inuzuka.

Kiba, Shikamaru, and Lee flinched and even Akamaru stayed down on the ground kept his hood on top.

"I have a better idea, why don't we let Akamaru carry Elfman instead? That way we can get to the nearest town as soon as possible. I've been meaning to get to an inn and have a relaxing bath. It's high time we get some rest." Tenten suggested and Hinata asked Lisanna.

"Um… Is there a town nearby with sizeable inn? We would like to take a rest please, we've been doing a lot of work lately and though we may not look like it, we're very tired."

"You're in luck! Housenka Town is just a few hours from here! We can take a rest there for a day before we go back to Magnolia Town!" Lisanna said with an ear splitting grin as the others seemed relieved at that.

"Since you saved my brother, I'm going to repay you by paying for the inn's stay. But don't let it tell you that we're all buddy-buddies, you hear me? If I find out you're all from a dark guild, consider your asses toast!" Mirajane threatened while Kiba whispered to Shikamaru, "I don't know about our asses, but I sure would like to touch hers."

Shikamaru groaned and palmed his face at this, why was he the one always ending up in the most troublesome situations?

* * *

Clover Town:

"Come again, Anko? I didn't catch the parts after you said 'we were transported into another world'." Kakashi mentioned and the snake mistress in their makeshift team held her head in annoyance and sighed. Not that she was annoyed at Kakashi, but the fact that the silver haired Jounin couldn't find it believable even with the presented facts she had for him.

"I know it's terribly implausible but what can you expect? That somehow we were sent to some uncharted part of the Elemental countries even though this place is as huge as Hot Spring Country? The writing system here doesn't exist anywhere from what I've seen!"

Anko did have a point, from what she had shown him, the writing system that was presented to him didn't really exist anywhere in the Elemental Countries. He was sure of it.

"That would be a problem then." Kakashi mentioned and looked over at Gai who was carrying his unconscious student.

"With our currency like this, we wouldn't possibly be able to use it to stay for the night, so all of us right now are officially broke." Kakashi continued as he looked upwards.

"So what are our options right now?" Anko asked and Kakashi began to think, Gai seemed to have a suggestion, though.

"We set up camp as we originally planned. We have no other choice; we can't bend the rules to what we like when we don't even know what rules apply here in the first place. I think it's a fair idea that we should remain in low profile and circulate from time to time to get some freelance work."

Silence reigned between the three adults.

"That's actually a good idea, Gai. We could use some odd jobs right now if we want to survive in this place, and what better way to do that than be like mercenaries!" Anko nodded but Kakashi shook his head, "No, not like mercenaries, but _AS_ mercenaries. But first, we need a lot more background knowledge concerning this place. We don't want to be fugitives on an unknown country if we can help it. Madara and Sasuke are likely after Naruto, and the more allies we have, the better. We can worry about our other teammates later. For now, we should rest for the day and recover our strength tomorrow. I know we're all tired one way or another."

"Shouldn't the brat get some medical attention?" Anko asked, and although she knew much of Naruto's regeneration trait, Naruto had on few occasions, been hospitalized to some degree.

"That's what I'm worried about but we don't have any money to place him in a good facility to recuperate, so it's best we let the regeneration kick in. Other than that, I suggest we do rounds here until Naruto reawakens. The ones that will go to the city will gather information and get any leads to any jobs willing to pay at a reasonable price or any detail about our comrades. Any of you disagree to that?" Kakashi asked and both Jounins shook their heads.

* * *

Outskirts of Oshibana Town:

Blade Wing has always been a pretty obscure dark guild. Not much was known about it for it was a mediocre guild at best. The jobs that were delegated to them happen to be coming from politicians who do under the table deals in their vicinity. They remained quite obscure and unknown for several years since its establishment. Being a member of the Balam Alliance didn't exactly mean that you had a lot of reputation like the three main dark guilds especially, Grimoire Heart.

Even the guild master was an obscure figure. Not out of mystery and intrigue however, but simply by the fact that no one cared.

But he was surprised when he suddenly saw most of his members down on the ground, lying in the pool of their own blood while a main heap of unconscious members lie just about at the front door, with one boy of spiky jet black hair greeted him with the tip of his sword pointing at him all the while sitting on top of the bodies.

"You, are you the leader of these sorry group of thugs?" Sasuke asked and the guild master gritted his teeth, "Who the hell are you and what makes you so smug that you can take out my men?"

"No one important, I would just like to get some information concerning of a target I'm currently after." The boy mentioned as his eyes morphed to that of a pair of blood shot irises, with three comas circulating each other in a counter clockwise fashion.

"Are you from the council?" The guild master asked as the tone of his voice indicated unbridled fear as it shook like a withering leaf.

"Council? YOU must be mistaken. I don't work for anyone. I do things alone. I'm just one person that is only seeking revenge for the people that wronged me." The boy mentioned but the man simply didn't care.

"What did my guild ever do to you? You look like some nobody."

"Says the unknown guild master who has no power over an organization he's a member in." Sasuke then stood up from the pile of bodies he sat on and planted the sword on the ground.

"Bastard! You'll pay for what you did!"

The man then began chanting his spell as Sasuke literally blurred from his vision and instantly appeared from the back, his hand crackling with electricity.

"You're lucky that I don't use my Chidori on a person who can give me the information that I need with a fatal blow. Be thankful I spared your life."

Blood had then suddenly sprayed as the guild master's right arm flew away from his shoulder. Only the bloody stump was the reminder of where it was connected. The man howled in pain as he was instantly on his knees and started weeping.

"Pathetic. This is a guild master? I had better expectations than this."

Sasuke gripped the man by the back of his head and held him to his eye level. His Sharingan spinning wildly as he stared at the man putting the man in a hypnotic trance.

Sasuke smirked and sneered inwardly, "You will tell me what I need to know."

And then, the guild master's world went black.

* * *

Woodlands:

"That is so sad!" Every member that was currently surrounding them was weeping for some unfathomable reason. Shizune explained that they were soldiers of an alliance of countries and not guilds. It would explain their almost uniform attire. And how most of the members of this particular 'guild' as she was lectured about, were taken aback at the situation that they explained, they knew that they were marooned for some reason, but they never knew just how marooned they were.

She took her map and gave the sizeable piece of paper to the leader of the guild now named, Cait Shelter. Robaul gladly accepted the map from Shizune and unfurled it for many of them to see. A few minutes of analysis coming from the old man as the man looked at it curiously.

"This location of the collective countries here doesn't exist anywhere in Earthland!" The man shouted, Yamato was the one to verbalize his surprise, "But that's impossible! That's a whole continent you're talking about!"

"Well believe me, boy. This continent doesn't exist anywhere in this world. There isn't a Fire Country existing here for miles and miles in the east! If it were true, it would have reached Fiore by now! This country is almost twice the size of Fiore, close to an empire!"

To this, Robaul asked them seriously, "Just how did you get here then, if this place truly existed?"

Neji looked at their commanding officer and then to the rest of his teammates, Shino was silent throughout the whole ordeal, his hands visibly placed in his pockets while Chouji didn't feel like eating anything. Sai was watching over the town for reconnaissance to check if any of their enemies were nearby so he didn't know and Yamato clearly did not know how to answer. The man was only conscious after the event occurred so it was understandable that he couldn't answer very well, so Shizune became their acting commanding officer for this team for now, and thus, their spokesperson.

"We would answer that question, if only any of you are to believe just how we came here." She started and everyone not members of the joint Shinobi army, nodded.

And then, Shizune talked, she told all about what they were doing just before that mysterious light from the sky absorbed them. She told them all about their potential enemies and how they could potentially be here, how dangerous they were and how deadly they would be. She told them how they were searching for their friends again and how it was important that they get a hold of the most important factor to their war, the one named Naruto.

"S-Should we believe them, chief Robaul?" One of the tribesmen asked and Robaul closed his eyes for a moment as if trying to discern any lies beneath that story.

"It all seems straight out of a story, lad. But one can never be too sure in a world of lies and truths. The line that we are walking on is very thin."

"Everyone! I'm home!" A voice shouted and they all turned around, seeing a small girl with a bipedal cat wearing clothing walking towards them with a wave.

Wendy Marvell looked on in wonder as she saw new faces in front of her, they were all wearing the same clothing and another person just landed beside her surprising her by his entrance, and seeing the animated drawing of a bird behind them disperse in a cloud of smoke.

"My reconnaissance is done, Shizune-san. I believe that there won't be any sightings of Uchiha Sasuke or the man with the mask today, this town is safe for now."

"Um… Who are you, mister?" Wendy asked, as she looked very unsure and somewhat scared. A new person in their guild was not something she was used to, the bipedal cat stood in front of her and Sai gave that unnerving smile at her.

"I go by the name of Sai, what's your name? You look very cute." He said as it in a tone of a compliment.

Many of the people who watched that instantly shivered.

"He- He's not into pre-pubescent girls is he?" One of them asked and Neji shook his head, Yamato was the one who answered for them, "No, Sai is… The most socially awkward person in our little group, he was born and raised differently from other children. You could say he's poor in his social skills."

Sai quietly patted the girl's head when she told him her name, although she looked reluctant. Sai then added, "Wendy… That's a very cute name."

"Sai, please step away from the girl, everyone is getting the wrong impression." Chouji suggested while Sai looked honestly confused.

"Aren't children the happiest when they feel some sort of acknowledgement?"

"For a stranger, it only scares them, Sai-kun." Shizune helpfully added and Sai seemed to acknowledge this and grabbed a small notebook and pen. Writing down the notes that Shizune had told him.

Robaul seemed to laugh at this as he said, "For an honest person like him, I guess I can put my faith in you yet, Ms. Shizune. Never have I seen a person's soul so bare about the truth that he tells it straightforward. No evil person can ever be that honest. You can stay here as long as you like but you have to inform me what it is that you plan to do next. I'm sure many of us here can lend a hand."

With that, everyone in the guild looked at each other and grinned. The shinobi looked rather curious at this and gazed back to the old chief, the guild master of Cait Shelter.

* * *

Housenka Town:

It was nice and relaxing that they had finally got a place to have a nice sleep with a warm futon. They'd been sleeping on the ground or in the treetops for months that sleeping in one felt like a luxury as well. The girls were already in the hot springs and were probably discussing about something mundane. Shikamaru however, was looking at the map that he had in his person and was scowling while he was sitting and crossing his arms.

He had already removed his Jounin vest and stretched his back a little, to his right, he saw Elfman sleeping soundly on his Futon while Kiba and Akamaru kept watch just outside the hotel room.

"Shikamaru-san, what are you currently thinking right now?" Lee asked all of a sudden, he was now wearing one of the inn's thin Yukata to take in the cold night breeze.

"Just thinking of a plan to get in contact with the rest of our friends without drawing attention from our enemies and I have to be honest, this is tough. Currently, we have a fugitive on the loose, a madman with a doomsday weapon in God-knows-where, and a Jinchuuriki who we don't know the status of. It's all quite difficult to think up of a plan. That's like me saying that I have to play Shogi without ever sacrificing one of my pieces but also not knowing where my opponent will place his piece."

"Then how about we play, Shikamaru-san?" Lee asked and Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this.

"Lee, this is not the time to be doing this. We need to get in contact with the rest as soon as possible and we need to have a status on Naruto's condition."

Lee then sat down and crossed his arms like Shikamaru was doing and said, "Gai-sensei told me once that in order to be an effective ninja, he must be willing to train hard and willing to take a rest when the time calls for it. I believe that those words hold truth in them."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow at this and said to the boy, "You just believe whatever Gai-sensei tells you."

"Of course! Gai-sensei taught me everything that I needed to know!"

Shikamaru simply leaned back and a half-lidded grin escaped his features.

"I guess I could play for a game or two."

As Shikamaru and Lee began their game of wits in one room, the girls were in the hot springs taking of what they deemed as a relaxing bath.

"Finally, after months on the battlefield we can relax with a warm bath!" Ino exclaimed as she dipped herself into the steaming waters.

"I can't disagree there. We've been fighting for months and this feels a very welcome change of pace." Sakura commented.

"Months? You guys never had the chance for a break?" Mirajane asked incredulously.

"It was do-or-die, Mira. We couldn't exactly afford to give away the most important factor of the war into their hands." Tenten mentioned as she sat on the warm waters and stretched her tired muscles.

"You guys keep talking about this important factor so much. Just what is it that you need to have five nations guarding it to the teeth?" Mira asked once more and the shinobi became deadly silent.

"W-We can't exactly say it. Or to be more precise, we aren't allowed to say anything about 'it'." Hinata answered for them. Although it wasn't obvious to many of the girls there, there was a certain distaste that left her mouth as she said so. She hated saying that word to describe Naruto, it was terribly demeaning for a person, and many of them knew just how it felt wrong for Hinata to describe him. Nevertheless, she would not let Naruto's existence as the Jinchuuriki be compromised over this simple situation.

"What is it with you people and your secrets?" Lisanna asked with a frustrated sigh as she dunked half of her face into the water leaving her eyes and nose on the surface.

"Sorry, it's just that this particular secret should be safeguarded from anyone, it's the only thing preventing the organization from total domination, and we don't want any more people looking for it. If we lose it, we lose the war." Sakura said in sincere apology as they all remained quiet at that one. The awkward silence was present between the two groups.

Obviously, it was not a subject they were comfortable in.

Lisanna tried to change the subject, "W-Wow, is that so? That must be really important then! How about we talk about what kind of magic do you people use then?"

The shinobi all looked at each other and then back to the mages and shrugged.

Tenten was the one who answered, "We can't tell you anything aside from what we already showed, it's because we'd like to keep our abilities a secret."

Mirajane was looking quite miffed at that. But then, she could understand from where they were coming from. They weren't exactly _friends_ to begin with. She just owed them after all.

Then it was silence that reigned in on their bath.

When the girls were back into their rooms, they noticed that Shikamaru was on his knees and was pointing his finger at Rock Lee who was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor, "One more game!"

They looked rather curiously at this as they watched Shikamaru challenge Lee to another round.

"Okay, what just happened here?" Ino asked. Because from the looks of it, Shikamaru looked like he had his butt kicked in Shougi.

By _Lee_ of all people.

"Lee managed to win with our last round. He pulled off a good tactic earlier and I somehow got my guard down."

"What?" Ino asked, obviously finding it as such a big deal.

Shikamaru had never lost in a game of Shougi against his peers. Not even once. So finding that Shikamaru lost this once, it was pretty hard to believe. That or Shikamaru was just as tired as them, but had to work twice as much. The Nara assumed the leadership position from that point on, any decision making that they do would have to go through him first. The shinobi became aware of this as soon as they saw Shikamaru began playing a game of Shougi against Rock Lee.

'_He must be more tired than we thought.' _Sakura noticed as she saw Shikamaru's shoulders were slackened a little.

And perhaps so, the Nara had to deal with a lot of things, and he was aware of his responsibilities and had to keep his teammates in line. Particularly, Kiba's wily attitude on the way here and Ino's complaining.

'_I guess I don't have to complain all the time.'_ Ino muttered as they saw Shikamaru play.

Several minutes later, Shikamaru was grinning when he had placed Lee in a checkmate.

Lee was grinning as well, "Has that relieved you of your stress, Shikamaru-san?"

Shikamaru gave a reply still grinning, "Somehow, I never felt better."

"Hey guys, I just finished my night patrol, Lee, you're up."

Kiba mentioned outside as Lee got up and arranged his Yukata before going out. Shikamaru stretched once more and got up as well.

"I think I'll hit the baths now."

Kiba's ears picked up.

"You are? I need one as well so now is a good time as any! Are the girls still in there?" Kiba exclaimed with a blush in his face. Shikamaru just chuckled and shook his head.

"No, Kiba, they aren't. They were already out of the bath a few minutes ago. They're in their room right now." Shikamaru replied.

"Aw, man! I missed my chance!" Kiba shouted in disappointment as he snapped his fingers.

"Kiba, do remember that Sakura was with them."

"Yeah, so…" Kiba was about to say a rude remark when he remembered what Naruto told him about Tsunade and Sakura's parallelism, the fact that they both have a very nasty temper and their super strength.

Wordlessly, Kiba shuddered and Akamaru had to chastise his master.

This time, Shikamaru chuckled as the three of them entered the baths.

* * *

Clover Town:

It was early in the morning and at this time; Kakashi was the one who was gathering information on this new place that they were in while Gai was getting info on his own about any of their teammates. As he went around, he began asking some of the townsfolk that were bustling near the square asking for any sign of work. Currently, he was asking a really bulky man with a bald head about any jobs he could work for as a mercenary. From what he could deduce from the man, he was a carpenter or a craftsman.

"Mercenary? You mean like one of those mages for hire? Well, a lot of people will pay, but you need to be a mage registered to a guild in order to take jobs. Though I suppose there are the simple odd jobs that you can do. Normally, tough works like monster extermination are handled by the guilds." The man explained and Kakashi asked the man, "Forgive me if I sound out of reason, but I would like to ask just what a guild is."

The man looked at Kakashi incredulously and then asked him, "You're not from around here are you?"

Kakashi inwardly rolled his eyes at this, "No."

"Well then, that explains it. Alright, I'll answer it for you. A guild is a collection of mages that take odd jobs. They're basically legal freelancers that people hire in order to work for them like what I said earlier about, such as monster extermination. They're sanctioned and controlled by the Magic Council in Era, a city far from Clover Town. Most of the missions range from simple menial chores to escorts." The man explained after he gave an exasperated sigh as Kakashi introduced another question, "What about espionage and sabotage?"

"Out of the question, lad. Only the council's very own mages can do that and even then it's mostly in a time of warfare. And before you delve any deeper, assassinations are out of the question. The Council frowns at the site of any loss of human life."

Kakashi thought about this for a moment and looked around, "So there are restrictions in fighting fellow mages?"

"Not really, occasionally, the council will order the guilds to take care any of the dark guilds, guilds who aren't officially legal to operate. It's mostly made up of multiple mages coming from their equally respective guilds. Last time it happened Blue Pegasus, Phantom Lord, Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail were the ones to cooperate, each one of them bringing a team of highly powerful mages."

"So there are team ups coming from different guilds as well?" Kakashi asked as the man smirked.

"You heard it right, whenever two or three guilds meet and form a set up, it usually means they go out hunting for dark guilds. You can see how regulated mages are in this place. Otherwise, we'd have people with magic doing whatever it is they feel like." The man said as they made their way to a house being built. Or at least, that's what Kakashi thought.

"Hey, Cody, what the hell, man? What took you so long? The contractors would be here any hour to check out the house! We can't just stand here looking like hobos! We need to do our job!" Another voice called out, when Kakashi turned to the person who was calling out his informant; he saw the complete opposite of what the man beside him was. A full head of hear and a scrawny build.

"Shut up for a moment, would you, Kyle? Some person was asking me questions about freelance work and he was asking me if there was any person willing to take his services!" The man beside Kakashi retorted. The white haired Jounin simply nodded.

"Freelance work? Is he a mage?"

"No, I'm not a mage. But I do have a set of skills unique for any specific job." Kakashi helpfully informed.

"Well then, ask the foreman for some work here. If you're not a mage, you must be some person down on his luck. I'm sure the foreman would appreciate the effort, though. We need all the help we can get to get this house up in a couple of months and we're way behind schedule already."

Kakashi nodded and went to the general direction of where the scrawny man pointed him.

A few hours later:

"I found us some work." Kakashi mentioned as he informed the two adults who were already talking earlier.

"Really? I hope it's something exciting!" Anko said in anticipation as Kakashi shook his head.

"Well, prepare to be disappointed, because it isn't what you think. While I was out there, I discovered we can't just do any type of mercenary work since we aren't mages working for a guild…" Kakashi was interrupted as Anko asked, "A guild? What the fuck is a guild?"

"It's something close to a ninja village, Anko. There are collective mages there, who take freelance work every time. Right now, since we aren't registered and we would like to maintain a low profile, construction work would be best." Kakashi mentioned as Anko looked like she was about ready to curse.

"It can't be helped. Though this means we can finally put Naruto-kun at a good hospital." Gai mentioned and Kakashi nodded.

"By the way, how is he?"

"He's still knocked out, as you can see…" She pointed to the blonde rather sarcastically then she continued, "Though I can't see anything wrong with him. He has a normal heartbeat and his breathing isn't laboured. He's still just unconscious."

"Normally, Naruto would have woken up by now…" Kakashi mentioned this as he held his chin. Indeed, there was something wrong right now with the blonde.

"No other choice, I guess we're going to go to a local hospital." Kakashi said and carried Naruto on his back.

The silver haired Jounin sighed once more as he remembered the younger days of team seven. Melancholy escaped his features as they walked towards clover town, once again asking himself, _'how did it come to this?'_

It was not only Kakashi who dreamt of his former team.

_Naruto's mindscape:_

_An endless plethora of dreams invaded him, an endless stream of memories passed through. Naruto watched as memories of his childhood shimmered like water as he walked, looking back at them, trying to sort them out._

'_My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I like Ramen and Sakura-chan! My dislikes are Sasuke-teme and waiting for five minutes for my ramen to cook, my dreams for the future is to become the greatest Hokage that ever was, surpassing even the Yondaime! Then everyone will look at me and acknowledge me!'_

_Such a simple boy wanting to live a grand dream, to become the leader of his village, to be acknowledged by everyone, to have meaning in his life, it was all too simple, yet too complicated._

_Naruto smiled as he stopped and looked once more towards another scene. He saw himself crying as he stared at the boy who was impaled through the heart._

'_How could you say that to him? He was your partner! He gave his life for you! You're a heartless bastard!'_

'_Kid, your words cut deep, deeper than any blade.'_

_As the boy wept in front of him, Naruto simply looked on with a frown, a flow of uncertainty reached him._

'_I am a relic they want to get rid of, so why do I exist and live? In order to exist you need a purpose, to exist for no reason is the same as being dead... I would love only myself and fight for only myself. If all other people exist to magnify that love, then there is no more a splendid universe than this one...'_

_Naruto turned his head to his back and there stood Gaara, his eyes were like back then, full of hatred and bottled sadness. Naruto approached him and went to touch his shoulder but the red headed boy disintegrated and turned to dust, dancing into the wind and surrounding the blonde before fading away._

"_What is going on with me?"__ Naruto asked himself, looking at each of the memories he was living through._

'_Hokage? Only fools would take up the mantle. Sarutobi-sensei was the same, a fool who followed a wistful dream.'_

_The blonde stopped at that but snorted in laughter in the end, it was somewhat ironic, that the one who called the job of being Hokage as a fool's job, turned out to be the one to accept the title of Godaime._

'_Just shut up for once! What the hell do you know about it? It's not like you ever had a family in the first place! You were on your own right from the beginning, what makes you think you know anything about it? Huh? I'm suffering now because I had those ties, how on earth could you possibly understand, what it feels like to lose all that?'_

_It was true. He didn't know what it was like to lose someone that important back then. But that was then, before Jiraiya was killed. He now understood how terrible that feeling was. Naruto looked down and sat for a moment, reliving his past was something he wasn't fond off. Everything in them, no matter how much he tried, always seemed to go wrong._

_For another time, Naruto wished someone would give him an answer. Naruto just sat there, sitting on the rippling water, and reliving his memories as time moved forward without him._

* * *

To be continued…

Chapter Two is out and after this, I'll give a brief time skip. I'll be referencing Canon material after assimilating the Naruto characters.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. Blight

_By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest._

_-Confucius_

Chapter Three: Blight

* * *

It had been two months since Kakashi, Gai and Anko decided to enter Clover Town and have Naruto confined to the nearest hospital. All three of them were surprised just how backwards their medical facility was compared to Konoha's. It did, however, sported a bed just for the blonde to be slightly comfortable in (He never had any camping equipment on with him). So it would suffice, or so says Kakashi, who was now with Gai currently working over as contracted construction workers of a rather large house in town.

"Woah, I didn't think it was possible but we managed to be on schedule!"

The foreman said who was obviously impressed as he looked on in amazement.

"Kakashi and Gai were really keeping things at good pace, they're surprisingly good." Mentioned Kyle as he remembered the two scaling the wooden support beams with their feet and carrying more pieces of wood on their shoulders, he still hadn't figured out how those two did it.

There was also the fact that these two leapt at impossible bounds for normal beings. Soldiers and some Mages alike, it was impossible for them to do that. Yet, by just looking at these two men like they were seemingly unfazed by what they were doing, they felt horribly inferior.

"Where'd you guys learn to move like that, from a jungle?"

Gai simply gave them one of his blinding sparkly smiles and gave them a thumb up, "From our most youthful village of course! We learned how to do these most youthful things since our most youthful days!"

Kakashi simply sighed at this and leaned his head back. Great, now Gai was speaking like they were old.

By the looks of things, the structure was almost fifty percent complete, setting them on the right track. The pay was decent, but more than enough to get them fresh batches of clothes, pay for Naruto's hospital bills and have an apartment for all three of them to sleep on. Food was no problem either, whenever it was Anko's turn to go to her job at the local restaurant, she would often bring food that were left after closing. And although stale, they couldn't exactly complain, they had no knowledge to this place prior to their arrival here and they didn't like any unwanted attention with Naruto still incapacitated.

"Kakashi, I have a question to ask." The bulky man known as Cody was looking quite contemplative as he asked the white haired man.

"It's been bothering me ever since you came here but I just had to ask. Why do you have a mask on?"

"I have a terrible scar on my face that never fully healed ever since I was a kid. This mask is the only thing that keeps it hidden. Would you like to see? I can guarantee it's pretty hideous." He lied.

Cody shuddered but seemed to accept the answer and looked as if he wouldn't push further into details.

"But I have to say, instead of the usual eighth month interval, it looks like we'll be done in a few more weeks. Maybe we'd get a higher pay for this!" The foreman cackled madly and Kakashi could smell the man reeking of alcohol. The man must have been distressed these past two months and saw just how behind schedule they were.

But not now, he was obviously drunk out of celebrating.

"The foreman sure is happy about this." Said one of the workers as Kyle added, "What'd you expect? Because of those two, we were able to build faster than before. Without them we would have been toast and another group of contracted workers would have been hired with us getting no pay."

As they continued their construction, Kakashi looked down and saw a rather small group of old people looking at the construction. Their eyes were set on watching the people hammer, connect, and nail pieces of wood to the house.

"It's going better than I expected." Said one of them, looking rather impressed, he had looked around and saw Kakashi who was hammering another piece of wood with a nail as Gai held the wood like a column.

"Young man! Young man!" The old man called out, and Kakashi looked down, tracing the voice of the person with his ears. He looked down and shivered at what he saw. Kakashi had to suppress the urge for his spine to tingle as he watched the man coyly calling him to get down to get the 'handsome foreman.' Kakashi wasn't only disgusted with the man's face, the old man's clothes as well. If it could be called that, it was a mix of two small bird wings and what looked like Gai's and Lee's leotard with the sleeves cut off and replaced with two straps of string to hold it up and what seemed to look like a skirt at the waist and was BLACK.

If it could be called a fashion statement here, Gai's clothes would fit in just fine.

Maybe that's why the foreman was drunk.

* * *

Cait Shelter:

"What's with all of the stuff, Ms. Shizune?" Wendy asked, as she looked around the piles of jars that had stuff in them, aligned neatly to the side as the woman in front of her was mixing a small concoction with the mortar and pestle and then pouring it to a clay cup before placing it in hot water.

Shizune smiled while Tonton and Charle were staring rather quietly at the interaction between the two. Wendy was genuinely curious and she wanted to know just what Shizune was making with those many jars that she got from a scroll.

Seeing them appear in a cloud of smoke before made Wendy interested in just who these people are even if Sai managed to freak her out just a few weeks earlier.

"I'm making medicine for our comrade. He's been injured for the past few weeks and his muscles were severely reduced because of what happened and the therapy has been straining him lately." She said as she stood up and put the medicine in the tray as she headed out.

Wendy nodded rather vigorously as Shizune smiled. Sai had been right; Wendy was just simply an _adorable _little girl. She looked a little sideways at first before speaking up, an unsure of what to say and finally uttered what she wanted to tell, "C-Can I help as well, Ms. Shizune?"

The medic looked at the girl with surprise before smiling at her, "Of course, you can, Wendy-chan."

Wendy smiled as she thought of Ms. Shizune's smiles to be quite infectious. Once they made their way into a small hut, they were greeted by a man that looked quite skinny for his physique (not as bad when she first saw him, but that was a few weeks ago), in his hands were crutches for him to use as a support.

"Ah, Shizune-san, my medicine arrived just in time." Yamato commented as he leaned the door back.

"Yes, thanks to young Wendy here helping me with the ingredients that I needed. She's quite the helpful girl." The older woman praised with a smile as Wendy blushed while Yamato smiled as well.

"By the way Mr. Yamato, why are you drinking medicine?" Wendy asked as Yamato answered with a sheepish laugh.

"Well, you see, something really unexpected happened and I was placed in bed for the past few months or so without my consciousness. I couldn't move because my muscles got smaller and I became physically weak right now."

Wendy then spoke to the man, finally admitting what she could do, "I-I have some healing powers that can possibly to help you, Mr. Yamato, I just don't know if it will work."

"Healing powers? You have healing abilities, Wendy-chan?"

Wendy wordlessly nodded and went straight to Yamato, holding up her arms. A blue, formless yet luminous glow captivated Shizune and Yamato and watched as Wendy closed her eye and began concentrating. The bipedal talking cat however, had other ideas.

"Wendy, don't use your magic too much! You're still far too young to be doing something so taxing!" Charle was immediate to voice her concern but Wendy ignored her, instead she focused in her magic and started healing Yamato.

"What in the world…?" Yamato asked in astonishment as he felt his arms grow stronger as well as his legs as well. He could see Wendy's hands were glowing as Shizune looked on in surprise as well.

As soon as the light came, it too faded after a few seconds.

"What… Was that thing?" Yamato asked visibly astounded to what Wendy had just demonstrated earlier.

"H-Healing… Magic…" She said as she stumbled slightly and Shizune caught her.

"By my guess, you're still trying to control it, Wendy-chan?" Shizune asked and Wendy nodded. "I'm… Not very well suited right now to be a mage."

Yamato simply grinned and grabbed his crutches, noting that what Wendy had done would have been a failure.

It surprised him however, that the minute he reached for the crutches, his arms were much more fluid to control than rugged for the past two weeks.

The ANBU captain looked at his hands and then back at Wendy and finally, he smiled, "It worked."

Yamato was back.

Outside the guild and the village outskirts, Neji was quietly training his Byakugan and performing his katas, moving fast and striking fast. Neji moved into the dense forest like quicksilver.

He had remained quite mortified at what level he was currently at. He had thought for a long time, that he, the peak of Hyuuga prowess, would be on equal footing as that of the likes of Hatake Kakashi or even his own sensei, Maito Gai.

Yet, as he was now, he couldn't even find it in himself to be proud of what he accomplished. In his own mind, in their generation, he was only third best. He gritted his teeth. That rivalry of the Uchiha and Hyuuga that he thought back then, was mere hearsay. He found it utterly humiliating at best. Where Sasuke and Naruto were currently standing on, Neji was sure, it would take him more than a month or two to attain it.

'_The difference in power is too great. I need to close that gap. I need to be stronger. Stronger than any other Hyuuga there is yet.' _Neji thought as he stood to a full stop at a nearby spring.

He had heard of Naruto undergoing elemental manipulation training a few months prior to Pain's invasion, and the results were unimaginably immense.

Naruto had managed to take out Kakuzu.

Neji frowned as he grabbed one scroll from his pocket and unravelled it with his free hand, reading on the basic elemental manipulation. Just before the day they were called to war, he had already attempted in finding out his element and was pleasantly surprised that he found the rarest element that aligned with Naruto.

Wind.

The cutting element, the element that was purely offensive in mid and close range, purely wild and it fit well with his Jyuuken, controlled yet irrefutably punishing. When Neji realized this, he smiled. The days of reading this during midnight were over, the day of finally putting theory into practice had begun. Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto wouldn't be standing alone at the top for long.

The others were already thinking of improving themselves as well, he was sure of it.

* * *

Magnolia Town:

Ever since their unexpected encounter with the mages two weeks prior, they had switched from their uniforms to their regular shinobi attire prior to the war. Shikamaru took note that everyone in Housenka Town kept noticing their uniforms and that was something they had to get rid off if they didn't want to be noticed (He had to remove his vest).

Not only that, but since they had no money to use in this world, they were left helpless and had to go with the siblings back to their guild. Something Shikamaru found quite irksome, sure. They were limited to not only on food, clothing and shelter; they were left poor and helpless. They needed to do something and gather enough money before they could even BEGIN to do anything remotely related to their objective right now.

So here he was, just by the nearest house off of the Fairy Tail Guild and ruefully wiping windows with a dirty towel.

"I hate this."

No less than an hour after their meet up, they were 'thoroughly introduced' with the guild members and to their master, Makarov Dreyar. To say that the man was welcoming was an understatement, though.

He accepted them with no questions asked.

_Flashback:_

_An old man sat by the bar table, legs crossed and a staff held in his arms and watched in enjoyment seeing his members have fun, the man looked quite blissful despite the drunken slurs and the occasional brawls. It was all in good fun! Honest!_

"_Hey, morons!" A voice shouted from the outside, it sounded quite feminine and just to add the familiarity more, the person kicked the door open and they saw a high legged black leather boot and Mirajane came inside, tugging along with her, her siblings and some new faces._

"_Mira, finished with your mission already? I would have thought it would take you three at least a week, it was your first S-Class mission as well." Makarov commented as he scratched his chin at this. The girl gave that haughty grin and said to the old man._

"_Yeah, but that was because we met it on our very first day, my younger bro subjugated it, though." To this, Mirajane pointed to Elfman who only gave an unsure nod._

"_And the friends that you've dragged along with you?" Makarov then pointed to the group who were looking around quite unsurely, the one with the facial tattoos was slightly retching from what he could see._

"_They helped us in defeating that monster on our mission, if it weren't for them, it could've gotten much worse." Lisanna answered when she stepped forward._

_The three siblings looked at each other but didn't say a word. The fact that they almost lost each other on that day would be something they wouldn't be quite comfortable talking about._

"_And what is it do they want, Mira?" Makarov asked as he raised his eyebrow at this._

"_We were looking to see if we can temporarily join your guild." Shikamaru said as he bowed in front of Makarov._

"_Oh, new recruits? But temporary? May I ask why?"_

"_We… We're looking for people who got separated from us since we got here, if anything else, we need to know what happened to them. That and we've already pledged our loyalty to our village. We only need money and we thought this was the best way we could do it. We'll take any job even if it's mundane."_

_Makarov could only smile at that._

_Flashback end_

Shikamaru couldn't still believe it; the man willingly took them in after that without going much into detail. He didn't know if the old man was just senile or he was watching them over. Makarov somewhat trusted them, but Mira still hasn't. Still, the fact that they had somewhat of an income even if mundane, was enough to satisfy him for a moment, all the while thinking about what to do during times of no jobs.

It was then that Shikamaru's head revolved around using his shadow based jutsus. What if there were other uses to his shadow, techniques that could help him in situations instead of issuing orders all the time and being left utterly vulnerable?

Surely, the others were having the same thoughts as well. As Shikamaru wiped the windows clean, he put his mind to work once more on his jutsus, the more he thought about it, the more it gets complicated.

"Hey! I'm not paying you to stare at my window all day, slacker! You get your sorry ass moving or I'm not even paying at all!"

Shikamaru suddenly had a huge urge to utterly strangle the guy.

It wasn't as if this was much of an important job anyway, and he wasn't even paying a good amount.

'_Cheapskate'_

Shikamaru then went back to washing windows. He wondered if any of his friends had better luck than him and not being forced to wash windows.

* * *

With Kiba and Ino:

Kiba and Ino took a rather simple escort mission of a merchant towards another city. The trip had taken no less than three hours after they rode the train to Oshibana Town. All the while, the two were having a splendid time talking to the merchant who seemingly looked very a good person for company.

Though they had a hard time reading the simple request, the fact that they didn't know anything about this place's writing system spoke volumes. Levy, a relatively new member of the guild, was the one to read it out loud to them and they graciously thanked her.

"Thanks for taking the mission with me, kids! I thought I was going to make my way to Oshibana Town on my own!" Their client said, carrying with him, a cart that had his wares for his next stall.

"You think it's dangerous to travel in between towns, Sain-san? From what I can gather in this place, it seems reasonably tame." Kiba asked and the client seemed to scoff at it.

"I wanted to make sure. Although the occurrences of bandits attacking are rare, I don't want to rely on that particular fact. There's been some hearsay that dark guilds have been relying on robbery to earn a quick buck. Can't blame them though, they have no way of getting any cash unless it's an illegal request." Sain mentioned while he kept pulling his kart.

"Then why join dark guilds in the first place?" Ino asked out of pure curiosity and Sain just laughed.

"That's a question I've wanted to ask as well and as you can see; I still have no idea why they are still working for one. They probably have their brains melted for smoking anything to keep them happy." The man commented rather humorously all the while the two ninja were laughing along with him.

When they made it to their destination, Sain had gratefully paid them and gave them some bonus items for keeping him company.

Kiba had known Sain to be a merchant of Magical Equipment from armor to weaponry. He saw the items himself along with Ino, who kept things in inventory checks now and then. The man had asked them why they do it and they told him it was a standard to keep checking items for them so that they could know if something was stolen or not. That seemed to put the man at ease and it gave him a reassurance of how competent these people can be.

"Are you sure, Sain-san? I mean, the money you gave is more than enough but isn't this a little too much?" Ino asked and looked rather impressed at the equipment he gave them. One was a pair of firearms that Alzack commonly uses, two handguns. Though the shape was different from what they saw from Alzack. Instead of a cylinder that was revolving, the sleek and straight slide of the gun that covered the top of the barrel itself was there. The hammer at the back seems to be covered by the slider as well. The color was silver by the slide to the hammer, to the trigger with a wooden grip frame at the handle.

The second was a short sword with a light violet coloring of the blade. The handle was wrapped in red clothing to make it easier to hold. The mind walker then noticed that the blade had multiple outlines that stretched sideways with a vertex at the middle making it form an angle downwards. When she grabbed the sword with her hand, she swung the blade and found it completely sturdy. When she applied chakra to her arm to hasten her swing though, the unintended effect was the sword collapsed and she found a series of cable wires on the extended blade that became to what she surmised as a whip.

"Nonsense, kid! These things are easily acquired! I may not look like it, but I'm a smithy too, you know! I'm not as good as some of Erza's personal smithies but I'm not bad at making weapons!" The man flexed his right arm to emphasize his point, to which Kiba grinned while looking at the firearms

"Hey, it's like Alzack's weapons, those revolver things!" Kiba commented to the weapon pair and Sean clearly scoffed at it with much distaste.

"Please, these two semi-automatic pistols are better than those crappy single action revolvers!" Sean boasted loudly as he grabbed one of the weapons and aimed it upwards.

"Unlike those things, these babies are much better because of their compact level and it's near rapid fire feature. One cock of the slide and you're ready to shoot whatever the hell it is you feel like shooting. It also has a much better ammo storage capacity than the revolver and you only need to apply your magic at the magazine for reloading." The man then fired the gun upwards with a loud bang before setting it to the box.

Kiba looked rather impressed as Ino asked the merchant while pointing to the collapsible blade.

"What about this one?"

"Ah, that's one of my former designs for weapons. It's a whip sword. Quite a doozy one as well, it takes serious dedication to really use that thing for its effectiveness, otherwise, you'd cut yourself to death with those things. I've never had the chance to use it, but I'm sure some of you can find some use for it." Sain replied as he grabbed the money needed to pay the two ninjas from his pocket.

When Kiba and Ino said their goodbyes to the merchant, they retraced their steps back into the station all the while hearing hushed rumors among the townsfolk.

"Hey, did you hear? There's been news of another dark guild falling after the incident two months ago just from the north of here."

"Is that related to the murder of one person who was at Toby's bar a few weeks back as well?"

"Yeah, they suspect that the victim was a member of a dark guild as well, but just on the next day a dark guild just outside of town got sacked. All of the members were dead and some were burned beyond recognition from what I can hear."

"And the culprit?"

"No one knows. The guy appears out of nowhere, kills one of their grunts then proceeds to kill anyone and anything related to him after that."

"I'm sure glad that I never went out that night. Who knows if I would have been the one to meet the guy?"

"You? That guy would have killed you out of mercy and because he's a psychopath."

Ino and Kiba then looked at each other as the conversation ended. The two men who had heard the news went on to their separate ways as they both frowned.

A man appeared out of nowhere? That sounded terribly suspicious. The both of them nodded and separated with a jump and began collecting information, asking any of the townsfolk about the murder that occurred just a few weeks ago near one of its most famous bars. Finding no description of their culprit, they asked of the guild that got destroyed near the town. Kiba and Ino then met on the eastern side of the city, just outside its outskirts at the same time.

"So, no luck on our culprit?" Kiba asked and Ino solemnly shook her head.

"There wasn't anything that they could give that was substantial. I thought it was better to visit the most visible crime scene and then work from there."

The two of them were in quick agreement and made their way towards the general area that they've gathered as to where the guild was supposedly located. All the while, both ninjas had a very deep contemplation.

"Ino, I've been thinking for a while now."

Ino raised her visible eyebrow at this and playfully remarked, "That's a surprise. You usually don't."

Kiba scowled a little at the girl before adding, "No, I'm serious this time. I've been thinking for a while and I hadn't gone and say it but during that time when we fought Madara, I never felt so weak and feeble back then. I'm sure you've felt it too."

Ino paused for a moment at that as they walked. True, they never really had any chance against the man. He had the power of the Sharingan and then the eye of the origin of Ninjutsu. Perhaps if it wasn't for the portal sucking them up, they would have most likely died.

She trailed slower as she looked away from Kiba and his pet, Akamaru looking to the side with a sullen expression written all over her face.

"Of course I did, everyone who's stepped up against him felt his power. We were like babies compared to the man. I'm sure you it's rather unforgettable when a person makes a group of highly trained soldiers look like infants. For all purposes, Kiba, I'm going to pretend that I'm interested in your question and ask, why?" Ino answered him and Kiba simply scowled.

"Is there a reason why you're in bitch mode today? Are you having your period? Because earlier you were quite easier to talk to." Kiba asked, obviously not liking Ino's current attitude.

"Not like it matters, we didn't stand a chance to begin with. Unless we know his full abilities, we simply can't catch him off guard." Ino mentioned and this time, she was the one leading and heading out towards the guild's main location.

"But it would be best if we try to improve ourselves more, at least for Madara to perceive us as a threat." Kiba added as he went besides Ino who looked deep in thought.

"I can't disagree to that…" Ino was then interrupted when she saw Kiba hold his nose with both his hands.

"What is it?" She asked

"An awful stench." Was the reply she had before Kiba flinched and gripped a tree bark while sliding his elongated nails at it, carving the wood as he said, "The smell of corpses are everywhere. I have to discontinue pouring chakra to my nose like this. It's too strong."

Ino sniffed the air around her and indeed, the reeking stench of a rotting corpse was present everywhere. She had to stop the urge from retching at the smell that it gave. She looked over to Kiba and Akamaru who were visibly struggling to lower their levels of sensitivity over their sense of smell.

It seemed, however, that not only corpses were present when they finally made it into the place. What they saw was a guild house was countless bodies were laid down on the ground, either mutilated or burned and probably more so inside. From the inside of the door where bodies piled off to one another, they saw a man's corpse utterly mutilated beyond recognition with his eyes still open and a missing arm. The whole place was a mess. Blood splattered on the walls, on the floor, charred remains of people whose face was cooked leaving no traces of recognition, and some were beheaded or unceremoniously amputated. Some just bled to death.

"There's no doubt about it." Kiba said as he got out and held his nose out in disgust, Akamaru following him shortly. Even though the reeking stench of death was enough to throw him off, a small whiff of the place confirmed his suspicions on who was the culprit.

Ino then grabbed several leafs of exploding tags from her pouch and began planting them by the base of the guild and its support columns, she went out while Kiba was waiting for her and placed her hands in a seal.

"I can't believe those people wouldn't even put the deceased ones for a proper burial. Are the dark guilds reputations really that bad that not even touching them would be a better idea?"

Kiba silently watched as Ino set the whole place exploding and crashing down below.

"Now I'm positive as to who was here for the two months ago…" Kiba's scowl furthered as he stepped away and began walking back. Shikamaru has to know about this.

Uchiha Sasuke was here two months ago and the damage he dealt became a testament to that.

It alerted Kiba to no end. Why would Sasuke do this? Was it because they brought about his anger? Or was he making a statement?

Kiba didn't know but he didn't care. He made a brisk walk back into civilization, Ino trailing behind him along with Akamaru.

* * *

Fairy Tail:

Hinata didn't know what to make of the situation right now. After selecting their jobs for the day, Shikamaru suggested that their group be separated in pairs. Sakura went along with him and their mission went fine. What brought forth a situation that she couldn't quite understand was what was in the guild itself.

They were rambunctious, easily agitated and were total deviants. If it wasn't one mundane thing that bothered them resulting in fist fights, it was another. Particularly one member of the guild, the one named Natsu, always started a ruckus inside, most of the time with the inadvertent stripper, Gray and sometimes, most of the guild members.

Not to mention drinking in mid day.

"Wakaba, you bastard! That was my last beer! I'll kill ya'!" Shouted one of the members and the infighting began once more.

Hinata, in surprise, stepped back and watched as the mayhem commenced all the while Sakura had her palm under her chin and looked terribly annoyed.

It was then that Hinata realized that Sakura was annoyed at being labelled as fitting in with the miscreant group a few weeks back.

"Is there something the matter, Sakura?" Lisana asked as she was leaning on the bar table while watching the men fight.

"Nothing." Sakura mentioned as she turned her head away from the fight.

"Hey, tomato head! Get down here so we could _talk_!" Mirajane shouted from the door entrance and up on the stairs, a woman with long flowing red hair clad in silver armor appeared from upstairs and looked down to the voice that called her out.

"What is it _granny_?" Erza's comeback seemed to have developed two things.

First, most of the men that were fighting suddenly stopped their scuffle when they saw Mirajane flinched. When she did so, they all took several steps back in a flash and looked like their souls were ripped out of their bodies as they shuddered by the other end of the guild.

The second thing that occurred was that the place dropped several degrees and felt like a cold chill had just entered into their guild house.

"What di**d you say?"** Mirajane soon took on her demon form as Erza jumped down from the second floor and smirked.

"You heard me, old lady."

"**YOU'RE DEAD!"**

Hinata and Sakura jumped back into the bar table along with Lisanna for cover and watched as the two girls butted heads while they looked on in both fear and amazement.

"**Bitch."**

"Bag of prunes."

"**Tomato head."**

"Geriatric woman."

"**Tomboy!"**

"Said the kettle to the pot!"

Erza quickly jumped back and soon, blades sprung up from mid air and all pointed to Mira who was gathering magical energy into her hands.

They were ready to dish it out, ready to beat the ever living crap out of each other and then some when they were stopped when a shadow crept to the floor and bound them stopping whatever magic they were about to do. Mira walked forward while Erza did as well. They were about a few inches closer when they felt a release that bound them. By the door, Shikamaru walked casually in with his hands in his pockets and sighing deeply at the work cut out for him.

"Pardon me, I'm just passing through and I would like it if I wouldn't be caught in your crossfire."

When Shikamaru sat down out on the bar stool, he grabbed a small pack from his pants and took out a stick of cigarette. Sakura seemed to scowl and grabbed the offending cancer stick from Shikamaru's person.

"No smoking for you, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru merely clicked his tongue in disdain and crossed his arms. The bad habit he picked up from smoking was caused by his former sensei. Strangely enough, he couldn't stop picking up the habit during the war, it calmed his nerves and many from their division used this as a form of narcotic or depressant to not let the nerves get out of control or else they would be put in a position of vulnerability.

"**You smug bastard****, you'll pay for that! Just because you're one smart cookie doesn't mean you can't be a stain on my shoes!"**

Shikamaru casually ignored that threat and blocked out any threats posed by Mirajane.

The Chuunin was about to request for a drink instead when he heard the loud voices coming by the door and slammed open revealing Happy, Natsu, and Lee barging in to the doors as the Sakura head unabashedly shouted, "Do over! I'll race you back into the forest!"

"Yosh, Natsu-kun! Your determination to increase your stamina and speed has moved my youthful passion which is utterly burning! Come! Another round and we shall see if your speed has improved! If you can't do that, then we'll run around Magnolia with only our hands five hundred times! And if you can't do that, then we'll do one hundred push ups in ten seconds! And if we can't do that, we'll punch a thick log one thousand times over with nothing but out fists and if we can't do that…"

Everyone looked incredulously as Lee began proclaiming his own imposition of rules as Natsu looked utterly determined, "You're on!"

Everyone stared at them with beads of sweat at the back of their heads.

"I'll show you that I can improve my time and keep up with you, bowl head! Let's do this!" And with that, they sped off again, darting past Tenten who seemed very tired as she walked into the guild.

"Heh, what completely oblivious morons." Gray muttered as he stared at the scene with that smug look of his, Lisanna helpfully reminded the ice mage.

"Gray, your clothes."

"AGAIN?" Gray asked and looked at himself and indeed, he was stripped down to his underwear.

Shikamaru groaned and hit his head on the bar table.

Tenten approached the guild clearly out of breath. She had been trying to keep up with Lee and Natsu who were practically blazing through the forest and through the entire town. They had a simple mission for this one, and that involved small deliveries and although Natsu had the usual clumsiness in one or two deliveries, Lee's speed more than made up for it. The client was happy to have the deliveries finished much ahead of time, but what happened AFTER was something Tenten didn't want to talk about. EVER.

"You look like you just wrestled a bear, Tenten." Shikamaru said and the weapon mistress from the Shinobi clearly looked annoyed at this and sat down on another bar stool at Shikamaru's side. She slumped and rested her head on the table as she groaned.

"Somebody please tell me earlier that handling Natsu is as difficult as handling Lee, alone they're stressful but together? They are going to drive me insane."

Hinata, who was simply watching the whole fiasco couldn't help but smile a little. Although it was chaotic, this place simply exuded with life. And Natsu reminded her of Naruto, how he was so lively, and so vibrant. She couldn't help but feel like this whole guild, in their first few weeks of stay, turned out to be something akin to a family, where everyone seemed to accept them so easily and act like their true selves.

It made her happy yet, completely sad, the fact that these people were treating them like family reminded her a lot of her comrades who were still out there, in the world, searching for them or possibly trying to make ends meet just like what they were doing.

"Shikamaru! I've got something you definitely would want to hear!"

Shikamaru turned his head towards Kiba and Ino who were rushing towards them like the hounds of hell were chasing them from hell and back.

Whatever that news is, it's something Shikamaru would have to listen to attentively, for it looked like something REALLY big judging from Ino and Kiba's faces.

Little did Shikamaru know; that this would be the news that would eventually push them to get stronger. If only, to prevent their wayward comrade from committing anymore unnecessary killing.

* * *

Elsewhere:

'_Can you now understand true pain?'_

'_I believe __that someday, the day will come when people truly understand one another! If I can't find the answer, it will be up to you to do it!_

_Cramped in the myriad assault of his memories, Naruto found himself staring at his life just recently, past the age of twelve, during his training years with his departed master and the subsequent months of returning to the Hidden Leaf. Naruto paused for a moment as the myriad of people that created a bond with him slowly walked towards him._

_They surrounded him, friend and foe all facing him as Naruto stood up._

"_What's happening? Why is this happening?" Naruto asked as he looked at the faces of the people he had met._

"_Can't really understand anything right now, can you?"_

_Naruto looked around and saw the image of himself sitting by himself, looking at the stream of memories like he did. This person wore the haori given to him by Shima and Fukasaku, the elder toads of Myobokuzan._

"_I can't blame you on that one." Said the person in front of him with a grin and Naruto looked dumbfounded at the situation at hand._

"_Just who…"_

"_Who am I? I would like to think that I'm the real Naruto too, you know. Though it's not normal finding someone talking to himself. I'm not your hostile counterpart, I'm not here to fight or give you the reason to accept me." Said the Naruto with the coat while the real one found himself being infected by this persona's grin and couldn't help but smile as well._

"_So why are you here?" Asked the one without the coat and the other one simply smiled at him and saying concisely in a completely straight face, "I'm here, because I want to tell you how much I love you."_

"_What?" Naruto asked this person that looked like him; surprised and undeniably disturbed from the fact that he was messing around with himself._

_The other one laughed and clutched his stomach in writhing moments of laughter as he said to the real one, "Oh man that was so much fun. I can see why you would do these kinds of things when you were younger, it really does provide some form of entertainment."_

_His laughter dying down, this person then became sullen as he said to the blonde, "This is a result of you straining both your mind and body at its limit. Your mind was overloaded with information concerning the chakra that you felt just before losing consciousness."_

"_You mean when I made it to the center of the war."_

"_Or what was left of it, bro! It looked like everything was bleak, you were lured out of hiding, you were fighting Sasuke all the while the others were fighting Madara with that freaky army of clones he had. It was nearly hopeless, but then, this happened."_

"_Then do you know what's going on outside?" Naruto asked his replica who merely shook his head and said to the original._

"_Unfortunately, no. I'm a part of your mind, that means what you see, is what I see, what you know is what I know."_

_Naruto looked down at this as he stared at his memories once more._

"_So when will I wake up?"_

"_I don't know. You tell me." His other self replied with a grin on his own, Naruto seemingly sighed in exasperation as he looked at his other self and said, "What are you trying to tell me? Just what part of me are you, really?"_

"_I'm your real self, you idiot." He replied with a playful smirk and snickered as he finished that sentence. Naruto looked much more confused._

"_Wha-? Okay, now I know you're just messing with me, out with it!" Naruto shouted, his patience was wearing thin. This person kept answering questions differently, he couldn't get a clear answer out and it was frustrating him to no end!_

_The person in front of him laughed like a mad raving lunatic. Clutching his stomach as he did so, rolling on the floor at the expense of his other self; Naruto's annoyance to this personality was seriously starting to rise. He didn't know how much more he could take._

"_Fine, fine, ruin my fun why don't you? To answer just who exactly I am, I have to let you know that I am the person who sees reality clearer than you do."_

"_Oh, you're the pessimist then, you're here to tell me to me give up on Sasuke?"_

_This time, it was the one with the haori who scowled at his other self's very unlike use of sarcasm, "Whatever. Just because I am your inner realist doesn't mean I'm a pessimist or cynical for that matter. And no, I'm not telling you to give up on Sasuke even though he's gone on the deep end. You're as stubborn as an ox and you wouldn't even listen, not even from me!"_

"_Then why are you talking to me?"_

"_It's because your mind is sorting out all your memories and basically everything, that I emerged from them. Call it as a side effect of what happened."_

"_Then how do I wake up?"_

"_I told you earlier, I don't know, you tell me."_

"_Gah you're absolutely useless!" Naruto screamed out in frustration as his other self indignantly huffed, "Look who's talking!"_

"_This isn't going to get us out of here faster!" Naruto yelled out at the one with the haori who was already frustrated about the whole thing._

"_Gee, when was it obvious? Was it when you thought Haku was a girl?"_

"_She looked like one and YOU know it!"_

"_That's not the point, damn it!" The one in the haori pulled his hair out of frustration as the image around them shifted from the time he was training with Bee then back at Haku's first introduction with him._

"_Gah! Now look what you did, you idiot! You made us recall that stupid moment!" The one in the Haori commented as he smacked the real one at the top of the head._

'_By the way, Naruto, I'm a boy.'_

_Naruto and his other self both shuddered at that._

"_Goddamn it. That always gets me!" Naruto said as he held his arms and shook like he had just swam through a frozen lake._

"_It can't be worse than THAT time though." The one in the haori said as the real Naruto seemed to have nodded at that as if recalling the most awful day in his life that he wouldn't want to talk about. The images around them never even shifted to that day as if it didn't even want to turn back into it. _

"_Thank God." Both of them said at the same time and then looked at each other, silence was what escaped between them for a few seconds until Naruto broke out a snort and laughed with his other self laughing as well._

_Soon, the laughter died down and both of them were sifting through the myriad of recollections that Naruto's mind had been sorting out._

"_So now what do we do?"_

"_I don't know, you're obviously the captain of this vessel so you're the one who should know and decide."_

_Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment but ultimately grinned in the end, his hands at the back of his head and looked laid back as he said to his counterpart, "Nah, I don't want to push it. I guess it's a nice idea to look back into your memories and relive both the good and the bad. Don't you think so?"_

_It was then that everything stopped and they looked around, the surge of memories stopping like frames._

"_I've noticed that I've been rushing things right now. That I've been taking things to drastically, that I've never been one to stop for a moment and think things through when it was obvious that I could have. But right now, with this, it stopped me from making anymore stupid decisions, right now, I feel like I can do anything! Seeing my life before me in a different view, I think I understand now why people always try to make me think things through." Naruto exclaimed and extended his arms sideways to emphasize his point. His other self looked at him and then smiled once more all the while shaking his head._

"_You're a real simple guy, you know that? I mean both of us."_

_Naruto looked at his other self and held out his hand, "Well, it's as close to a diplomat as I can be."_

"_Well then you better brush up those skills because you'll need it when you become Hokage." His other self then took his hand and shook it firmly._

"_I can't promise that." Naruto mentioned with a laugh and scratched the back of his head._

_Then, just like glass, the images that danced all around them shattered and broke, falling like brittle, delicate and fragile glass. His other self seemed to fade, dissipating like grains of dust. Just before he vanished from the real Naruto's vision, the doppelganger told the blonde with a knowing and laid-back smile, "You're still growing, you know. Walk forward, Naruto, and don't ever stumble, grasp your hands and carve your own road. Someday, you'll be the best of what you can ever be."_

_And with that, the one in the haori was gone._

In the midst of the darkness, Naruto heard the sounds of birds chirping outside, the gentle caress of the sun's rays touched his skin and soon, his nose was invaded by the smell of flowers and that irritating smell of anti-septic or whatever that was.

Slowly, he realized, he was waking up.

He opened his crystal blue eyes. His vision was blurry but slowly returned to their natural visual acuity. The sun's light irritating his vision as he used his forearm to shield him. His voice, raspy and weak, let out a small groan as he opened his mouth.

"He's awake! Hey, Kakashi! Get over here!"

Naruto looked at the Chuunin Exam Lady who was shouting Kakashi's name and then back at the room. He noticed this wasn't the hospital he was familiar with. Could it be that they were at the nearest town? What happened after he was unconscious? Did they win?

"Ah, glad to see you're finally awake then." That familiar voice brought him out of his worries when he saw Kakashi stepping in from the curtains.

"Kakashi-sensei… Is it over?" Naruto asked as he looked outside the window. The place outside was laid back, peaceful and the view was just relaxing as the trees mingled beautifully with the structures outside.

"Unfortunately, Madara could possibly still be alive. More importantly, I need to update you on the current situation." Kakashi mentioned as he closed his favourite book.

An hour later, Naruto's eyes went wide as he said to Kakashi, "So we're stuck in some unknown place that Anko-nee-chan suspects as a different world."

"Not suspect, Naruto-kun, it may turn out that it is likely the case in which we are now." Gai helpfully added and Naruto nodded.

"How long was I out then? Have any of you manage to get word from the others?"

Naruto was about to get up when Kakashi stopped him.

"You've been out for two months and we haven't made any progress with contacting the others either. They are most likely trying to be as discreet as possible, Sasuke and Madara might possibly still be at large after all."

Naruto looked annoyed at this, "Okay, but did any of you at least try to get into contact with them?"

"No, with the currency we had, we were flat out broke and we had to place you in the hospital. After twenty four hours, you were still unconscious and it worried us so we sent you here. We've been working to pay both our dues and stay alive in this town. It was fortunate we found some form of construction work." Kakashi helpfully added.

"That's right, be thankful we toiled our asses off for menial jobs so that you could sleep in that bed, brat."

Normally, Naruto would retort back at that statement. Instead, he sheepishly scratched the back of his head at this with a very unlikely nervous laugh, "Sorry about that."

"Now that Naruto is awake and well, what do we do now Kakashi?" The snake mistress asked and Kakashi began to think.

"The best course of action would be to begin searching for the others to build up our forces before stopping either of the two. But with no leads and no way to contact any of them and our money like this, we can't do anything worth wile unless we gather more resources to dig on." Kakashi explained as he sat on the edge of Naruto's bed and began thinking.

"We're going to have to gather more money for our budget if we want a wide scale reconnaissance such as this. So in order to do that, we're going to have to go for the mercenary business." Kakashi said this as he pocketed the book and looked up. His expression was hidden beneath his mask as his only visible eye looked aloof.

"Two months ago, we couldn't do this because of your condition, Naruto. If we had did so back then, you would have been vulnerable and we wouldn't want that. But now, we have the perfect chance." Kakashi mentioned as he sat grabbed a small piece of paper from his pocket on his Jounin vest.

"With this, we can have enough money to go around and we can move freely from one town to another without the problem of being chased after by this country's government for doing illegal activities." Kakashi mentioned as he read the paper.

When the foreman earlier was talking to those old people, Kakashi couldn't help but eavesdrop into their conversation. It was fortunate that he did though; the people he had been talking to were guild masters. As in the ones responsible in running a guild, apparently, the building that they were making here was a guild house for the meetings that each guild master would have to attend to.

"Well, now that we know what to do, what next?" Anko asked and obviously, she was excited, two months of doing work at a local restaurant and she was ready to cut some throats out of frustration. Heck, she wanted to quit on her first day!

"We're heading to Era." Kakashi said as he stood up and left Naruto as he closed the curtains behind him. Leaving the blonde to look down and think of a way to contact them.

Then, he grinned.

Naruto snuck from his bed and left through the window, with his chakra gathering at his feet, he stuck himself on the wall and scaled the building upwards reaching the rooftop of the hospital.

With a simple seal that was a middle index cross, he focused his chakra and moulded it throughout his body, exerting as much energy as possible.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)!"

* * *

To be continued…

Phew, I finally got over my exams and decided to update this rewrite first.


	4. Binding Ties

"_Alright, chums up, let's do this! LEEROOYYY JEEEENNNNKIIINS!"_

_-Leeroy Jenkins; Pals for Life Guild.

* * *

_

Chapter Four: Binding Ties

* * *

"No."

Shikamaru stood firm in his answer as many of them was coaxing him to agree with them.

"But this is our chance! We can take him! Are you just going to let this chance slip by? He's Konoha's problem! We HAVE to go!" Kiba announced and tried to push his reasoning to the chuunin. It looked like it indeed was the perfect opportunity; they finally have a lock on Sasuke. The elusive Uchiha was finally confirmed to have made it here as well.

"Kiba has a point, Shikamaru. Sasuke's our problem, we have to deal…" Tenten agreed with Kiba at that point, but Shikamaru didn't let her continue any further.

"And send you all to your deaths? You're all severely underestimating Sasuke, then. I know our priorities, but the way we are now simply won't cut it. I am not about to authorize you all on a suicide mission against that bastard. Do you all want to die so badly, then? We don't have the proper strength to face him right now, so I suggest you all sit tight and get stronger to a certain point that even _Madara _would perceive you guys as a threat. Don't charge into a fight headfirst. We aren't powerhouses like Naruto who could afford to take risks. Or Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei who have aces up their sleeves or multiple techniques to fall back to. Sasuke knows us and knows every move that we can do. We aren't going for a manhunt and that is final."

This time however, it was Ino who spoke. She was just as anxious as the rest.

"But considering what happened to that guild we were telling you about…"

"The answer is still no." Shikamaru mentioned, all of them were stubborn, all of them felt like they needed to do what they felt that they needed to do. It was like being kids and wanting to do whatever they felt like it. Looking at this situation, he couldn't help but shake his head. It seemed even living through a war can't get all people to mature.

"Damn it, Shikamaru, quit downplaying us here, we can take him! We have the advantage of numbers!" Kiba mentioned, and indeed, they outnumber Sasuke seven to one. Shikamaru's aloof and annoyed expression turned into a scowl.

"Really, Kiba? Who's downplaying who? Last I checked Sasuke had Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo. If you have any idea how to avoid his Amaterasu or pierce his Susanoo THEN we talk about a manhunt. But right now, you all should have an idea that this isn't possible."

Lee, who came back after his race against Natsu, nodded as to what Shikamaru was trying to say, "Shikamaru-kun's argument indeed introduces a good point, but it is not out of reason that Sasuke-kun is indeed our responsibility and we cannot let Sasuke-kun be the catalyst into something that would plunge this country into chaos, many lives are at stake and Sasuke-kun has clearly encompassed his vendetta to all that he sees that stands in his way. For that, I cannot let it pass."

Kiba scowled at Shikamaru as the fanged boy yelled at him, "What's wrong with you? Back then you were up in arms about taking down Sasuke! Why are you backing out now? Just when we know he's alone!"

Kiba was talking about the time that they decided Sasuke needed to be neutralized because of his status as a threat to the village. But that was BEFORE the summit happened and Sasuke's abilities weren't shown. Who knew that he had the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan at his fingertips? They never expected that. Especially since they knew Sasuke _hated_ Itachi.

"Because every event that transpired up to now forced me to really think about any hasty decisions I've made in the past. That and even if he's alone, all of us here don't have anything that could take on Sasuke's abilities. Like I said, Kiba, if you have anything that can avoid Amaterasu and pierce Susanoo or prevent him from using it altogether, then I'm all ears. Until then, you can forget about trying to take him down." Shikamaru admonished once more at the thought of chasing down Sasuke. To him, all of them were severely lacking in facing off against an S-Class level threat. They didn't have the necessary people in order to fight him, particularly Naruto, Kakashi or Gai.

Kiba was silenced at that and slowly backed away but not before Sakura spoke.

This time, Hinata spoke, knowing what Shikamaru was saying to be the most likely better approach, "I have to agree with Shikamaru-kun, w-we have no chance of getting toe to toe with Sasuke-san if we are like this. We are lacking the necessary people in order to fight him."

Sakura, however, answered differently.

"Even so… We can't let Sasuke-kun do whatever he wants. If it results in me dying just to stop him, then I'll…"

"That's quite a resolve you have there, Sakura." An old voice interrupted her. The Konoha ninjas looked over to their shoulder and saw Makarov Dreyar who now sat by the corner of the guild. The older members of the guild were watching their arguments silently while many of the younger members were taken aback on Sakura's statement.

"I would never expect it to come from one as young as you." Makarov was gazing intently at Sakura who was curious of the old man that was talking to her.

For once the master of the guild took keen interest in what they were talking about. He had seen them walk around the guild like silent wraiths. They never stood out, but they were clearly known. When the group of children did talk, they only talked about what mission they had just gone into and how much was the pay or just like any other teenager out there, talk about anything that caught their interest. But then, there were times that he had noticed just how much their eyes can turn into steeled gazes in seconds, how they could walk with both caution and finesse all around the guild, how their guards kept up even though they looked completely lax. Makarov may not have minded what their reason to join Fairy Tail was, but to him, it wasn't the bigger picture. There was something about this group of young people that intrigued him to no end. The small little details like their movements, their posture and how they talk.

"It was how we were taught." Sakura answered the guild master without hesitation.

Makarov raised his right eyebrow at this and asked her, "Are you really willing to put your life on the line to stop one boy, Sakura?"

Sakura closed her eyes and bowed thinking of the times she shared with the Uchiha, thinking of how much Sakura wanted to help him, how much she desperately wanted her team back even though it looked like it was hopeless.

She bit her lip rather harshly and blood trickled down from it, disrupting her from her thoughts and letting the pain jolt her back into reality.

"That person… I feel that he's my responsibility. I couldn't stop him back then and he hurt one of our friends. Many of them almost died trying to get him back and I felt that it was my fault. I felt that it was my fault that our friend was trying so hard to keep a promise to me because I wanted him back." Sakura mentioned and recalled the times they had spent together as members of Team Seven. She couldn't just let go of things that easily. Everyone was suffering around her because of her failure, it was mortifying.

"That's why I want to stop him. I want to end all of this madness even if it costs my life!" Sakura exclaimed the resolve that she had. Makarov looked at her with that discerning gaze of his and ultimately conceded. Seeing Sakura's determined expression reminded him of men and women of war going to their last battle. Wills hardened by their determination to finish it all. Looking at Sakura, he could see her spirit and will to fight was forged by blood and fire.

Somehow, it saddened him, but even he had to concede to her resolve to a certain extent.

"I can't say no to those eyes. They're the eyes of a soldier who has seen things far beyond what many would be considered as horrific."

Sakura looked hopeful as half of the shinobi nodded at him but Makarov's understanding and knowing gaze was replaced with a stern one.

"But I can't also let you kids go out there and send you to your graves. If that friend of yours has that much doubt, then I suggest that you all brace your fangs longer and grow stronger. No matter the cause, a life is much more important than any duty. Endure and become strong. Wasting your life is not worth it. You maybe are temporary mages, but to an extent you are my responsibility now, don't forget that." Makarov finally said and Shikamaru nodded.

* * *

North of Fiore, dense forest:

Mystogan was kneeling down as he looked on the ground feeling something was amiss after finishing his mission.

He was tasked with subduing a monster that was seemingly summoned by a dark guild. He had managed to do it with fairly no difficulty, but there seemed to have something that disturbed him. For one, after encountering the monster for days, he found it weak, lethargic and sluggish. It was lying on its stomach as it gave a faint roar, seeing the human come close to it and its danger senses sky rocketing.

But what really got his attention however, was the stump that was supposed to be its left forearm as blood seeped out of it. The cut was clean, like somehow, a giant meat cleaver chopped it off. Not only that, he could see and smell some of the smouldering parts of the arm and some of the scorched earth indicated a fire of some sort. Somehow, the flames cauterized some of the wounds that the monster had, but the bleeding was still present.

"What happened here? Did someone else finish the job?"

But that would be impossible. Most of the delegated jobs were sorted and given out specifically to the guilds that the job requests specified. And last time he noticed, S-Class requests were usually specific jobs given to a guild with the best chance to succeed. There could be no one job given to different guilds, let alone S-class requests.

The monster gave a weak growl as Mystogan went closer still. The masked mage of Fairy Tail simply grabbed one of his staves and pointed it to his target.

"I'm sorry. You must have suffered a great deal before I came here."

The gem that was embedded with the staff in Mystogan's hands gave off a light green glow as its rays gently touched the scorched earth.

"I'll put an end to your misery."

And just like that, the monster's vision faded to black.

A few minutes later:

After disposing the said monster, Mystogan began checking for any sign of the local dark guild's activity within the area, the rumors had mentioned that the guild lies somewhere at the base of the mountain, near to where the monster resided. For someone who has had his life in solitude for a long time, Mystogan could tell the difference in the serenity that this forest had brought. It was oddly quiet. The deafening silence was very present. It reminded him more of a graveyard than a serene forest.

Then, just like before, he saw the scorched earth that was present from the site to where the monster was located. He could faintly hear the sound of flames burning as he stepped closer. The temperature was slowly rising, and then, the scent of smoke and cooked flesh wafted through his nose.

Mystogan flinched slightly as he walked further and further into where the heat was coming from.

It was then that he saw of what was a clearly horrifying sight. There stood in the clearing was the suspected dark guild's main house, now nothing more than shambles engulfed in wildly dancing black flames. Just from where he stood, Mystogan could feel the heat coming from them. It felt like the intense flames coming from a very large furnace. Looking at the damage it had caused, he could tell that the flames had been burning for several days. Which was impossible, it had been raining ever since yesterday, surely the flames should have doused and snuffed out by then.

The guild house was now nothing more than destroyed pillars of wood. No bodies were ever recognizable, as all of them were already ash by this point. Mystogan clearly did not like this at all; someone or something just mercilessly annihilated a group of mages.

"M… Monster!" A voice shouted. Weak and raspy, the voice came over near to his left, near where the flames had spouted. Mystogan ran over to the man who was crawling, the back of his shirt was stained with blood and the ground was tainted with it as he got away. From what he could see the person was stabbed through the abdomen.

"H-He came and attacked us for no reason… He killed the master after glaring at him then burned down the guild with those eyes… The black flames, no matter what kind of magic we used, it didn't stop. He was a true monster, a nightmare!"

Mystogan stopped and kneeled beside the man, shaking him slightly as he asked, "Who was this person? When did this happen?"

"W-We didn't know, all we could get from him was the pattern in his eyes, red and pointed like a star, with a single black circle in the middle… Before he left, I saw the crest placed on his back… It was the symbol of a fan, red on the top and white on the handle… He had black hair, as black as the flames he used… He came without any purpose and killed everyone in our guild… Monster! Monster, I say!"

Mystogan shook his head and closed his eyes in deep sympathy to this person, the man was getting delirious, all he could get was an image and what could possibly a fraction of the culprit's abilities, a sign of impending death.

He then breathed his last. He must have been writhing in agony, the man bled to a slow death.

Mystogan had seen enough, he was going back to Fairy Tail; he needed to let the master know about this lest this person started targeting the recognized guilds.

But first, he needed to inform the nearest legal guild of what has transpired here and the closest guild this place was the guild that he had left Wendy in, Cait Shelter. He had to hurry before this person comes into contact with any of the guild members there.

* * *

Cait Shelter, three days later:

Today, Sai was tasked in hunting for food around the forest. With him on his flying ink bird was the small Wendy, who was looking quite unsure of herself while Charle was standing flying beside the bird looking at Sai with scowl, who was merely smiling as he was looking down.

It had been two months since they were stuck here, and for as much as he could remember, their progress has been quite slow. Yamato had just finished his therapy with Shizune thanks to the little girl's help, much to his surprise. Shizune had told him that she was interested in Wendy's ability to heal almost any ailment. In response to this, Yamato now took a temporary command to them to obtain supplies and information, a wealth of it was what Yamato really needed. Compared to Shizune, Yamato was much more careful in treading grounds right now, a result of being in ANBU he supposed. It wasn't obvious to many, but for Sai who was part of the ANBU black ops back then, he noticed that Yamato was twitchy meaning he hadn't fully let down his guard just like him. Neji and Shizune could probably tell due to their experience or Byakugan, but the telltale signs of Yamato's careful nature were there. It felt like something was about to go wrong.

"It has been bothering me for the longest time but I must ask now." Charle mentioned as Sai looked over to the cat as he gave a small smile.

"Why must you put a perpetual smile on your face?" asked the flying cat.

Sai merely gave another smile as he looked down, "I've read in a book that a smile can bring forth positive emotions from any person. It confirms that a smile is contagious and very uplifting."

Charle could feel how analytical and straight to the point that was, she could tell that Sai was telling the truth, but what she couldn't tell however, was the boy's emotions. It was like looking at a black slate, like a bottomless pit, a dark abyss. Sai was something she couldn't fully understand. More so than their sunglasses wearing friend, Shino, Sai had no obvious emotions to give away. And it was this trait that made her uneasy with the boy; it was like talking to a hollow and faceless man.

The idea scared her to no end, which was why she was so careful around him, careful of Sai's motives. Robaul had once said that Sai was the equivalent of a white mask, pristine and clear, but with the true face of a demon.

It was then that Sai had suddenly noticed a rustle in the bushes. The ANBU grabbed a scroll from his pouch and began drawing a pair of two small birds.

"Ninpo: Choju Giga (Ninja Art: Super Beasts Imitation Picture)"

With that, the drawings came to life and flew down into the canopy of leaves. Sai then fluidly held the single edge Wakizashi on his back as he began pumping chakra into his legs to perform a simple Shunshin.

Wendy and Charle watched as they felt a subtle yet palpable surge of magic escaping from Sai, they watched in silent anticipation at what he was about to do until the two birds immediately flew from the canopy as an inferno stormed its way upwards. The birds quickly smashed their way to the scroll and told him what they had seen.

With two simple words, Sai grabbed Charle and commanded his hawk to turn back from the site of the blazing forest fire. He then gave the white cat to Wendy and unfurled his scroll once more, drawing multiple birds in it as he grabbed a ream paper strips with red linings from his pouch. The little birds came alive from Sai's drawing and they all grabbed a paper tag from Sai's hands and proceeded to dive below.

Charle who looked indignant of such a gesture at first looked frightened when she saw Sai's troubled face all the while he muttered, "I must let Shizune-taichou and Yamato-taichou know of this predicament."

It was subtle but it was enough to put Charle into worry.

Back from where they were supposed to be earlier, Wendy could hear the sounds of multiple explosions escaping throughout the forest. That didn't bother her much. But what bothered her was the raging inferno that spontaneously happened before Sai's immediate panic.

* * *

Clover Town:

"YOU IDIOT!" Anko hollered as she pounded Naruto on his head with her fist as they were waiting for Kakashi and Gai outside while the two were discussing any contingency plans in case worse comes to worse.

Naruto cradled his head as Anko started paced back and forth in front of him all the while feeling foreign to his new wardrobe. They all had very different clothes than what they usually wore.

Naruto was wearing a plain white shirt underneath black hoodie vest and blue denim pants that reached his ankles, his only weapon that he had for now was a five kunai set snugly fit into his holster just above his left knee. For the blonde, getting used to long pants was going to be for a while. It wasn't exactly a part of their normal attire. But he had to admit though, the denim fabric was very tough, it passed more than the normal wear and tear time that he wore back in their home.

Another thing was that the clothing of choice given to him by Anko lacked a particular color. Not that he minded of course, he also wore different clothing on different situations, but that orange jumpsuit was the only pair he had when he came rushing to the center of the war.

So it was understandable that many of the nurses threw away his clothes like that, they were terribly worn and stank like a dead horse's carcass. Somehow, he felt violated when he thought the nurses changed not just his clothes when he was unconscious.

He suddenly shuddered.

"You just gave Madara the biggest target all over this country! Do you have any idea about what to say in that situation?" Anko ranted. She was now wearing a long sleeved white jacket over a black leather tank top that revealed her navel and black biker shorts to accentuate her hips and her legs and a pair of ankle high shoes. Naruto noted how they were not supposed to garner attention when Anko was getting all these gazes from the men around her.

"Ow, what do you want me to do? I at least need to inform them of where we are. They're probably too worried about our status already." Naruto reasoned out as best as he could and then quickly muttered, "Not that your choice of clothing is covert either."

Anko's sharp ears caught on with that statement as she said, "For your information, this wardrobe happens to be of my advantage in combat."

Naruto didn't look convinced at all, "Yeah if you want to kill them with nosebleeds, then who am I to argue?"

Anko was about to teach Naruto about the importance of abusing the advantage given to them when a Victorian Era suit wearing Maito Gai got out of the apartment complete with a set of dress shoes and sparkling teeth gave them both a thumbs-up.

A full black business suit wearing Kakashi with a mask and eye patch followed him, whose single visible eye told his exasperated look upon Gai's choice of clothes and the fact that they were supposed to remain hidden in plain sight was just screaming for them to garner attention that they did not need.

"Let's just forget about the clones and get this over with. The sooner we get to Era, the better our chances of being left unnoticed and the faster we can gather everyone." Kakashi mentioned this as he tossed each of them with the appropriate bags filled with gear for survival and combat. All four of them then started walking to the nearest train station, set to the city of Era, the center of Magic in Fiore.

It was then that Naruto raised his hand to ask a question.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this and asked the blonde, "Kakashi-sensei, I know it seems kind of stupid of me to ask right now, but why are we going to Era?"

Kakashi simply nodded at the blonde's question. After all, Naruto was the only one who didn't know what was going on and what was about to happen. Kakashi had discussed this earlier with Anko and Gai. Apparently, he had almost neglected to tell Naruto as well.

"Tell me Naruto, what's the quickest way to gain information from a stranger you don't know without resorting to interrogation or torture?" Kakashi asked and Naruto scratched the back of his head at this as it seemed the question was forcing his common sense to work.

"You bribe them." Naruto answered simply and Kakashi gave a nod for acknowledgement.

"Good, now, to gain any amount of information, we need money. And the information that we need might just possibly involve a way for us to get back to our own world. But it so happens that something like that would most likely cost us an enormous amount of money and an equally enormous amount of time depending on how we do it." Kakashi then noticed that Naruto was nodding and was processing what he had said.

No money, need idea how to get back. More money equals more info, more expansion concepts to understand, a bigger chance to encounter that possibility.

Naruto looked at Kakashi attentively as the Jounin had his visible eyebrow raised; taking note of Naruto's willingness to listen for once. Deciding he should take a chance for the silver haired Jounin to assess the blonde's thinking capacity, he furthered his explanation.

"We have four objectives for this plan, first is to gather our comrades scattered all around. Thanks to your clones, it would be that much easier for us to leave a clue, because we sure won't stay in Era for our next objective. Are you following me so far, Naruto?"

The blonde nodded once, twice, and then thrice.

"Second is to gather enough resources and use it for our third objective. We need money to operate, to spend on essential equipment and funds for what would most likely be travels. Spending nights in an inn, food, water, and clothing, with our currency as it is, our funds are useless making us broke. Due to the expected scale on our operations, we need a lot of money." As Kakashi told him about his plan, the four of them made their way to the train station.

"Third, with our gathered resources, we obtain the necessary information through any possible means necessary and that includes bribing. With our exotic circumstance taking into factor, we should expect the worst, as you should know."

Naruto looked down suddenly as the question finally hit home at what Kakashi had said.

What if they never find any means to get home?

It certainly did bring about an interesting point to ask, yet it all seemed all too scary to think of. It was possible that they might never come back; something Naruto didn't want the possibility of having.

He still had a lot of his things on his plate on the other side. That meant he would have to work hard in getting the right information to get back to their side.

"Huh, _'no rest for the weary'_, sounds something that would befit us all right now. Though I would have to say that even this place, for the laid back atmosphere, can't help but give out a sense of danger. It's like you expect something to happen in here but you can't just say it because you don't know what it is." Anko commented as they were now inside the train.

Naruto looked unsure as they entered. He had never ridden a train before. The outside was completely metallic, with the front of the locomotive itself that was coloured black and spewing steam from the exhaust on top.

Inside was made of hard wood, complete with soft comfortable seats facing each other and a window on each pair.

When they all sat down on one side, it was then that Kakashi explained to him their final objective.

"Finally, there is a fairly reasonable suspicion that Sasuke and Madara are here in this place. Even though I don't want to involve a lot of people in this world, I fear that would be wishful thinking on my part. But this is the best way to rally what remaining forces we DO have and strengthen it from there in order to face Madara and/or Sasuke. So for our last objective, we'll remain hidden from the public eye until it's time for us to lure out either of the two. I think it's fair that we too remain hidden with no one finding out about us except for a small group. And that's where the Magic Council in Era comes in."

Naruto then clarified to Kakashi, "So you want us to basically be like Akatsuki and work from the shadows until we make big moves that would gain Sasuke's, Madara's or possibly both of their attentions. During that time, you want all of us to get stronger, is that it Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi nodded and added some more insight in to what he had in store, "Except we'll be doing things legitimately, we'll be taking requests from none other than the Magic Council itself, missions and jobs given from the council will remain confidential between us and them. Basically, my plan is to create and establish a guild for hire by the Magic Council and remain it known only to them. During which, all of us will be using codenames in order to operate secretly."

To this, he pointed to Anko, "Anko, you will be known as Kurohebi (Black Serpent), Gai will go by Byakko (White Tiger), I will be Haiirogami (Grey Wolf) and Naruto will go by as Murakumo (Cloud Gatherer)."

It was then that Kakashi gave them each a white porcelain mask with different designs. Every one of them had a different looking mask that supported their codenames. A snake mask for Anko, a wolf mask for Kakashi, a tiger mask for Gai and a mask for Naruto that reminded him a lot about Haku. It was a white plain mask with no distinct design except for a simple blue streak of a cloud lining up from one cheek to another.

Gai simply commented, "Honestly, I wanted our disguises to have a theme on the Shiseiju (Four Holy Beasts) but I guess this will do fine."

Kakashi then continued offhandedly, "Right, for our next discussion, we'll be talking about the name of our four-man guild. After talking it over with Gai and Anko, we came about a list of names that we wanted to cover. And since Konoha and Shinobi were names far too obvious to be related to us, we came upon the best name we could think off that was as subtle as possible."

Anko smirked at this as she wore her mask slowly, letting the cold and apathetic expression of the snake mask cover her face as she said, her voice lightly muffled beneath it, "Our guild will therefore be called, Kage."

Gai followed suit, "For we come from the shadow, and live through the shadow."

Kakashi then placed his mask on and continued, "With our spirits tempered by fire and forged through will…"

"**From the depths of the shadows we will be as swift as the wind and strike fast as light, and the hearts of our enemies shall tremble in fright, for we are Kage, the shadow that exists but remains unknown."**

The train then gave off a loud whistle, signalling its departure from Clover Town to the capitol of magic, Era.

* * *

Cait Shelter:

Mystogan felt nostalgic as he viewed the very isolated guild of Cait Shelter. He instantly remembered that he had left Wendy to the care of the Chief. A smile managed to escape Mystogan's lips beneath his mask as he walked inside the small village. Sleep Magic would be unnecessary here. He needed the chief to know about the news as soon as possible. He didn't want to spread any fear from these people and they needed to prepare.

Unsurprisingly, many of them were staring oddly at him, but the whispers he heard of being the seventh person to enter the village in two months made him curious. There was a group that came here before?

As far as he knew, the guild was not that well known. Very few know the existence of Cait Shelter, and how distant it was to any city or town in Fiore. If he had to guess, the people that came here earlier were both in a group and were hopelessly lost.

But that was what he questioned inside his head, why did a group of travellers get lost on a near god-forsaken forest such as this? It was too far from any route that he had seen, too far from any larger human establishments and too far period.

"Ah, Mystogan, what brings you in this faraway place?" A familiar voice asked.

Mystogan snapped out of his musings and looked to his left, seeing Chief Robaul standing rather expectantly before him with a staff in his hand.

"I came to check on Wendy and I'm here because I'm worried of what happened to a guild not far from here."

Chief Robaul raised his eyebrow at this.

"What is it?"

Mystogan looked at his side and felt wary of another presence as he said to the chief, "It is better if we talk this inside, Chief Robaul. I feel uneasy with a lot of prying ears in this place."

"I guess you haven't met those travellers that came here before you did, yes?" The old man asked and Mystogan nodded.

"Yes, but more than that, they shouldn't have to hear this. As soon as I tell you what it is, Chief, you have to make sure that you all stay safe. Abandon this place if you have to."

Robaul shook his head, "I'm sorry, child. But we, the descendants of the Nirvit tribe would not abandon these lands. They are our ancestral home. And you talk as if we're a bunch of weaklings. Let me remind you that the Guild Master's test is very difficult. Establishing a guild is no easy feat, I tell you!"

Mystogan somewhat smiled at this beneath his mask in amusement but said it again, nonetheless.

"All the same, Chief Robaul, please be careful. I've seen the aftermath of what this person can do."

"Person? You're worried about one person who is disturbing the guilds?"

Mystogan was about to continue when he heard a loud crash coming by just outside the tent. A small splash later, he could hear footsteps hitting the ground at a fast pace. As if it was an emergency. Robaul went outside, concerned as to what it was, when he saw Wendy and Charle looking quite dishevelled. Wendy long flowing hair was a mess as was Charle's white fur.

"What happened to you two? Why is Sai running?"

Charle answered for Wendy, although her voice was shaky at best. "W-We don't know, Master Robaul. All we could say is that Sai turned back when he saw a forest fire literally just happening in a blink of an eye."

Overhearing that conversation, Mystogan turned to the talking feline and asked her in urgency, "What was the color of the flames?"

Charle didn't know what to answer at that, it seemed like a very stupid question.

"It was the color of a normal flame, orange."

Mystogan's panic diminished a little as he took a deep breath.

"For a moment there, I thought it was black."

Black? As in black flames? How on earth was that possible?

But Mystogan had to still be wary, for their enemy was most likely making its way towards here if the urgency all around him was any indication.

In another part of the quaint little village, Shino watched as he saw Sai dashing urgently towards Shizune's hut. For him, this sense of urgency had never come to a better time. He and Chouji had been training for the past two months in their respective jutsus without any foreknowledge given to Yamato or Shizune. They were training in secret, much as how Neji was just a few weeks ago. Although he had barely finished his training, Shino felt like he was now stable enough for him to tame the Aburame Clan's deadliest and most notorious ability.

He could still feel the pounding of his heart immensely pumping blood throughout his system as he injected himself with those things, how he felt that he had died ten times over as he rolled on the ground. The chances of him being accepted by the colony were slim. Few of his clansmen had little to no success in incorporating them into their bodies. Such was the little amount of success given to them that they deemed it dangerous, a kinjutsu, a forbidden art that could not guarantee victory, but was enough to die a horrible and excruciating death.

Shino had seen the horrors of the jutsu once when he was a child but even then, he couldn't afford to avoid it any longer. The fact that his intuition was telling him of danger to come was something he had to take note of.

To his right, Chouji had already begun his training in elemental manipulation. Shino thought that the boy beside him was lucky. Many of the Akimichi Clan's jutsu revolve heavily on Taijutsu and their mass changing techniques. He had heard once that his classmate had taken the three forbidden pills issued to every member of the clan in order to stop a Sound Nin from chasing after them, the last resort weapon that the Akimichi had ultimately resulted in a very serious form of heart problems. Cardiac Arrest being the end result of it. Why Shino considered Chouji such a lucky fellow was for the fact that the Akimichi survived that fatal condition and was living to tell the tale. Of course, the Godaime Hokage had something to do with it, but luck was still luck.

"What do you think is it, Shino?" Chouji asked as he discarded the skin of a fruit he had been eating earlier.

"Given the urgency that Sai is currently telling, the situation would most likely involve us. Therefore, it is prudent that we handle this problem ourselves and not tell the people here of what kind of things we are facing right now, unless it is a comrade. But if it is one of the two who we think they are, then we should prepare for a hostile encounter."

Chouji easily got through what Shino was telling. Spending time with Shikamaru had a lot of perks after all. If only Ino or Kiba would do so, they would most likely understand Shino as it is.

"Shino, Chouji, grab your equipment and let's go. Yamato-taichou and Shizune-taichou is calling for a group meeting and it concerns one of our prime targets." Neji mentioned as he began pocketing Kunai, Shuriken, a spool of ninja wire and Explosive tags to his pouch and holsters. They briefly saw Neji's sleeve slightly torn from the wrist upwards, indicative of their senior's training.

"Who's our target?"

Neji closed his eyes and made a solemn bow, "Its Uchiha Sasuke."

Chouji was about to shout out when Shino interrupted him, "Understood. Are we to assume that we will be discussing battle plans? Or an escape plan?"

"Most likely the former rather than the latter, judging from the look of things, most likely we'll intercept Uchiha Sasuke before he makes within close distance to this place."

It was then that Shino wordlessly turned his back from the Hyuuga and went inside their hut, intent on packing every weapon he could reach. A slight stirring of his new colony crept up within him, they were feeling his anxiety.

The empathic creatures were slowly stirring into agitation and Shino could feel it. For a moment there, he had thought he had lost concentration. He needed to focus. Chouji looked concerned for a moment as he said to the Aburame, "Shino, I know of what you did. And although I'm not saying anything to Yamato-taichou, I have to ask, can you fight?"

Shino merely paused for a moment before turning his back from Chouji with a simple answer, "That is already a given."

Once they had all gathered into one place, Yamato simply unfurled a makeshift map that Sai drew in earlier and began their discussion.

"Good, now that we're all here, I'll explain our battle strategy."

Yamato then began talking about their positions and their roles, each giving them the info that they need. A protocol that they do before missions was to review their target's abilities if there are any, possible list of jutsus that they may have concerning the said ability, and any notable weaknesses to come into mind.

Shizune debriefed them once more on Sasuke's abilities. Yamato was made sure he was informed of anything that they would need to watch out for.

While they were discussing their battle strategy, two children were listening from the outside. Yamato was the one who first started their conversation as they all looked down on the map.

"Since we're fighting a lightning and fire element user, our main force should consider water and wind elemental users to negate them. I'm a water user so I can be of some help. But the problem would be his lightning release techniques and I'm still not one hundred percent recovered so what I can do is most definitely be limited with our coming skirmish. Sai, what's your estimate time in when Sasuke arrives near this village?"

"My estimate is close to four hours. Three if he's running on his top speed." Sai answered helpfully.

Yamato nodded and began tracing his fingers upon the map that Sai drew a few weeks ago. From what he could tell, from the map, the terrain he encountered Sasuke was mountainous, so it leaves a whole lot of cover for them and a rather difficult job for an aerial raid which was Sai's expertise.

"I'll provide as Yamato-taichou's back up then. I'm a wind element user just like Naruto. Perhaps I can be of assistance in the frontlines rather than being in reconnaissance."

"That leaves us with a scout to predetermine Sasuke's position." Shizune answered and Shino raised his hand.

"I'll be the lookout. Being a member of the special ops has been quite helpful since the war has begun." Shino suggested and raised his hand up.

Yamato nodded his head at this. In fact, he was rather surprised at the level of judgement coming from Naruto's peers. He knew he shouldn't feel that way but he still was. Neji and the others were exposed to the harsh realities of war after all. It had only been months for Naruto's peers to engage in warfare but Yamato felt like he was already looking at a squad of veterans, people that now have a few things accomplished under their belt.

"That leaves me for logistics and long range combat and Chouji-kun for mid-range support. Sai-kun will provide us with aerial support. I know it would be difficult for you, Sai-kun, considering the terrain and our proximity to the target, but with this much manpower for all of us, we'll need to do our best." Shizune walked over to Sai and gave him a new set of explosive tags.

"I made them a few days back. This should cover for what you lost earlier."

Sai quietly nodded and accepted the replenishment for his equipment.

Then, Yamato opened the door; all of them calmly walked out of the small house and never once turned their backs to the small hut.

"Are you fine letting the children know about what we are about to do, Yamato-taichou?" Neji asked all of a sudden in an audible whisper, the former ANBU captain simply nodded.

"Its okay, Neji, they won't be able to follow us anyway. We'll be escaping through the trees and most likely it would be too late for them to catch up." Yamato mentioned as they finally started their run. They were slow at first but soon enough, they began to pick up speed and looked like blurs to any normal person that saw them.

Then, they jumped towards the canopy of trees like lithe panthers speeding through the trees as if it was almost as breathing.

Chouji looked on ahead with anxiety as he thought of one thing that made his skin turn cold.

There was no stopping this now.

With Mystogan:

"Chief Robaul! Chief Robaul!"

The sound of children yelling frantically outside his house brought forth the old man from his talk with the Mystogan. The children looked oddly distressed as they began talking incoherently in front of the old man.

"Is something the matter?" The old man asked, the children looked at each other and shouted, "The strange travellers suddenly left the village!"

Robaul's eyes widened at this as the children pointed directly east of the village, back into the deep and dense woodlands to where they came from.

"We overheard them talking magic and stuff that we couldn't understand, something about ambushes and lookouts?"

To this, Mystogan became worried.

"Chief, did you perhaps take in people from the council? Soldiers maybe?"

The old chief looked back to Mystogan and gave a solemn nod.

"Possibly. They have a rather… systematic and machine like organization. They serve their functions quite well."

Mystogan scowled beneath his mask, something tells him that these travellers know more than they let on. Could it be that they know who attacked the dark guild from three days ago?

With that in mind, the mage from Fairy Tail stood from his seat and went outside the Chief's home, asking the children to where the travellers went.

When the children complied, Mystogan gave a simple nod and thanked the chief before heading out to the general direction that the children were pointing.

Wendy looked anxious as Mystogan vanished before her eyes and looked back at the Guild Master of Cait Shelter, "Master, who was that?"

The old mage looked down kindly upon Wendy and smiled, "Someone you don't need to know, Wendy. He's just here to give a message."

Or a warning if that was more like it.

Still, Charle couldn't anymore be wary. She felt herself shivering slightly as a cold wind suddenly swept inside the room.

The chief gave a small frown as he shook his staff a little.

"An ominous wind approaches. Charle, Wendy, get back to your hut take a good rest. I take it you are very tired, yes?"

Wendy shook her head, "No, sir, not at all."

Robaul could only give a sigh.

* * *

Sea Wood Forest:

Amidst the inferno that danced around him, a wicked smile escaped his lips. Earlier that day, he had encountered a familiar bird, one that shouldn't even exist in this place; it was a bird that existed not in this realm, but on his.

Uchiha Sasuke scoffed at such petty attempts to hide from him. If he had remembered correctly, that new member on Team Seven had the ability to create inanimate drawings and making them come to life. So it only served as an indication that gave him that smile.

"I know you're there… Naruto, you're close. So close that it's making my blood boil in anticipation." He mumbled as flames danced behind him.

Sasuke walked towards the general direction in where that new member flew just before that pretender bombarded him with multiple ink birds that were strapped with numerous explosive notes.

Sasuke had been scouring the dense woodlands for three days, looking for any person that might give him a clue as to where Naruto or any of his companions reside. A feeling of annoyance managed to creep its way into his mind for every time he turned to a dead end.

"Fuuton: Hakke Shiten Kuushou (Wind Release: Eight Trigrams Four Sky Palms)!"

A sudden wave of gust erupted from seemingly out of nowhere as it sent Sasuke hurdling towards the opposite direction where he was facing as four more powerful gusts of wind sent him crashing further and further away from his original position.

It was then that three birds, with pronounced black outlines for feathers and a pure white complexion whizzed its way towards him, along with them, long metal strings dangling loosely against the wind with explosive notes strapped on the metal wires.

They flew fast and at seemingly impossible feats.

Sasuke inwardly cursed as he forced himself to stand from the onslaught of pressurized wind that he suffered earlier and jumped away just in time to avoid an incoming direct hit from the semi-animated creatures.

**BOOM!**

Unfortunately, he was still far too close for comfort when he evaded the birds. The shockwaves sent him spiralling to a tree forcing him to reel in pain.

These petty tricks were rather annoying. Sasuke growled at how these simple techniques managed to get close to him and caught him off guard. Perhaps his mumblings were what brought him into a false sense of security.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are not allowed to go any further beyond this point." Hyuuga Neji spoke. A stern tone escaped his vocal chords as he stood in front of Sasuke, on a branch and looking down on him condescendingly. Sasuke scowled at the Hyuuga Prodigy for a second before he sneered at his senior.

"_Hyuuga_, I'd imagine you and your pack of foolhardy washouts would have resorted in running away and informing Naruto about how I was here, ready to slaughter you all."

That sneer soon turned into a frown as his Sharingan came to life.

"Tell me where he and the others are and I'll guarantee a swift and painless death."

Neji smiled in relief a little. It was fortunate at how many of his comrades that were sucked into this place were fortunately to be alive and not with this psychopath. Relief then turned to worry as he remembered the other threat that could bee here as well.

"Sorry, Sasuke, but you're not in the position for any form of demands." Neji stated and Sasuke planted his sword on the ground and streaks of lightning soon crackled around him.

"That can be arranged."

"Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Great Forest Technique)!"

A large wooden spear emerged from out of the dense woodlands. Sasuke jumped back once more before the spear began conjuring up countless wooden stakes, hounding at Sasuke at a blisteringly fast pace. Sasuke's eyes carefully scanned the area around him, avoiding as much of the deadly wooden spikes as much as possible. He weaved around them like quicksilver, and drew Kusanagi from his back cleaving; slicing and parrying whatever that he couldn't dodge. With the added effect of his Lightning, his sword had cut through most of the wooden pillars with relatively moderate difficulty.

"Don't think you can do whatever you wish, Uchiha-san. Konoha is not for you to take." Yamato declared as he stepped out of the forest to where Uchiha Sasuke stood. The survivor stared at Yamato in contempt for a few seconds before evading another barrage of wooden stakes.

"Nobody…" Sasuke began mumbling once more as he rolled in midair, dodging a clean thrust to his torso and used the wood as a platform as he dashed down towards Yamato. His eyes widening, his adrenalin pumping and coursing throughout his body like his chakra, Sasuke could literally feel and taste the blood of his most loathsome foes.

"NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE MY VENGEANCE AWAY!"

As Sasuke gave in to his maddening bloodlust, the shrill cry of a thousand birds chirping echoed throughout the forest.

"Disappear along with the bolt of lightning."

The person that entered his vision, the first person who will taste his hatred, his eyes zeroed in on that person as his hand crackled with lightning.

But not before an oversized fist collided straight to his face sending him flying away from the scene.

* * *

Central Train Station, Era:

The trip was nothing eventful as Naruto and the others exited the said transport. The sound of the train's whistle and the smoke that it gave resounded throughout the whole station.

"Well, that went better than expected." Anko commented as they went out. Nothing noteworthy happened during the train trip. Well, except for that bickering couple that happened to argue just behind them. Anko seriously tried not to be rude, but the way how the conversation went from a simple argument to a shouting match that was so petty that it involved the man's size and how he couldn't possibly please any woman with his 'lacking girth'. Anko had to admit, she had a hard time trying to contain her laughter while Gai was looking quite displeased and Kakashi remaining indifferent.

Naruto looked quite flustered at that and did his best to ignore the squabble and instead went to sleep. Still, the train ride that was taking them to Era began to feel like forever with that fight. In the end, the couple was silenced when they finally made up near the end of the trip.

"Seriously, a fight over measly Ice Cream and it suddenly turns into an argument that involved Dicks and Tits. How petty and hilarious was that?" Anko asked, chuckling at the memory while Naruto looked at the woman with a frown.

"I am never going to ride a train again if I have to hear another couple argue like that. Really brings a bad image into my head and I get enough of those things from Ero-sennin and Sai."

Anko looked at the blonde with a raised eyebrow. Well, she could definitely remember who this 'Ero-sennin' was, Naruto's nicknames spread like a bad case of forest fires around the village, much to the recipient's chagrin. But Sai?

"Oh, you mean that metro looking dude that has a tendency to show his belly button?"

Naruto shuddered, "Please don't leave a mental image like that, him, wearing the standard uniform should have been the attire he kept in the first place."

"I have to agree, a boy his age shouldn't expose so much youthful skin!" Gai concurred and Anko rolled her eyes at the statement.

"This, coming from the guy wearing a skin tight body suit…" Anko mentioned candidly.

"Touché, Anko." Kakashi interjected after he went and grabbed each of their luggage. The now eye patch wearing leader of the quartet then looked out into the capital, and looked slightly impressed with the structures that littered the place.

"Wow, even when we were in Kumo, those things pale in comparison with the building aesthetics here." Anko commented as she whistled at the marvellous buildings and towers that surrounded the majestic capital.

Naruto could feel the very vibrant yet solemn capitol of the country. It was as benevolent looking as it was awe inspiring. The seemingly proportionate towers and buildings around them quickly reminded him that this was not their world, yet, he couldn't help but gaze in awe. The people around them looked tame, like they were treading on holy ground, giving pleasant greetings and going on their way with a bow.

"So this is the center of magic, huh?" Naruto commented as he gazed at the highest tower that was erected in the middle of the city. A look of determination escaping his face as he and the three Jounin made their way towards it.

"This is where our long term mission starts. As soon as we get the approval of the council, then we'll decide to where our base of operations will lie." Kakashi told Naruto as the blonde nodded.

Naruto's fists shook in anticipation. With it being called a mission, Naruto couldn't shake the feeling of excitement going out of him; he was thrilled by the idea. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling of dread as well. Everyday being wasted meant that everyday, Sasuke was moving to who knows where, possibly scouring the lands for any of the Konoha Shinobi present in this country. Hoping for his friends to be alive was something he could only do. And hoping for his clones to get there in time was the best thing he could come up with and give a lock on their general location.

Lastly, he had hoped beyond doubt that they will find a way to get back to home, to where they truly belonged.

* * *

Magnolia:

"Since most of us clearly haven't cooled our heads yet with my decision, I'm hoping we take a request that's a little more exciting than doing escort missions with old men." Shikamaru mentioned as he grabbed a piece of paper and handed it out to them.

"Don't talk to me right now." Sakura said bitterly and the pineapple headed Chuunin gave an exasperated sigh.

"Sakura, snap out of that responsibility shtick. You're even worse than Naruto when it comes to this." Shikamaru mentioned as many of them were staring at the two, Sakura still would have none of it.

"_Evil thrives when good men do nothing._" Sakura mentioned and Shikamaru scowled at it. He knew it was true, but there really was nothing he could do about it, for now.

"And I say that a life lost isn't worth a damn manhunt. Right now, we're too vulnerable Sakura, we're too _weak_. Sasuke is the opposite of that word. He has his weaknesses covered. He can take on whatever we could dish out as we are right now. To make matters worse, Naruto, Neji, Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei aren't with us and I would like it if you just drop the whole thing." Shikamaru advised Sakura who looked sullen all of a sudden.

"Then… When do you think we could take him?"

Shikamaru didn't know how to answer that question since even he doesn't know when it will happen so he said to Sakura as best as he could, "When I think that you are all ready. Until then, I suggest to grit your teeth and bear it. I am not the Kazekage's right hand for nothing, you know, so I don't see much of a point if I send you all to your untimely deaths. I don't want that, Naruto sure as hell doesn't want that. You understand where I'm coming from, right?"

Sakura nodded

"Being the general of the Fourth Division, I was tasked with sending soldiers out on the field all day. When one comes back with an injured leg or two or a few bones were broken, I felt guilty. When some of them died, I couldn't help but feel responsible to their deaths. It was horrifying Sakura, feeling the deaths of the people that trusted you to win the war, to get them home alive, and seemingly, their memories, their faces; they haunt me to my sleep." Shikamaru said this as he pulled out one more cancer stick to smoke with.

"Koten, Izuna, Hoshun, Shouka, Those are just a handful of names that I can remember that died during the war. And those are the few names that I'll likely never forget and haunt me till' I'm old with my plain looking wife." Shikamaru mentioned as he closed his eyes and held the lighter of his departed teacher.

"I don't want things to happen as it did when Asuma-sensei died. Although I already put that past behind me, I still consider it to be my greatest failure, it woke me up, and it changed me." Shikamaru mentioned as he exhaled the nicotine from his lungs.

Sakura felt no obligation to stop Shikamaru this time.

"After Pain's destruction of the village, I realized just how horrible Akatsuki can be; it didn't matter on who was wrong or who was right anymore. All that mattered then was that it happened. It happened and there was not a damn thing we could have done. And I was willing to stop this madness once and for all." Shikamaru said as he dropped the cigarette and squashed it with his sandals, effectively putting out the light.

"But what stopped you?"

"What stopped me? Nothing has ever stopped from thinking we should be the ones killing the sick horse. Unfortunately, said stricken horse isn't so sick in the body but in the head. And even worse, no matter what I do, I couldn't possibly think of anything that could touch him. Even with my jutsu, even with my strategies, and even with all of your strength put together, I couldn't find a way to bring Sasuke down. All the scenarios I've played in my head always end up in Amaterasu or Susanoo, so you could say it isn't a good thing right now."

Shikamaru gave a deep breath as he went to the guild to start the mission. Leaving Sakura all alone to think about what Shikamaru told her.

* * *

To be continued…

Surprise! I'm not dead! Woohoo! I just got a very busy schedule since December and the first week of January, tests, tests and more tests galore!

Whoopdee freakin' doo.

Also, you might be wondering, how is two months enough for someone like Kakashi to learn a very different alphabetical system?

Answer: Sharingan, it's basically a mental camera that helps in adapting the wielder. Not only the Sharingan, but Kakashi's natural genius as well plays a big role in this. Nevermind all the troubles that one has to go through in reading and writing, Kakashi should be able to bypass all of that.

And to Faroush who asked me just what is the more powerful magic/jutsu, Etherion or the Bijuu Bomb?

Answer: Comparing the two usually means comparing how destructive or useful each spell is. Etherion is a magic that, on humble observation, takes a lot of prep time to occur, nevermind the clearances it has to go through the council and the extensive number of casters in its field. Unlike the Tailed Beast Ball however, it has a range that's pretty much equivalent of a Particle Cannon Superweapon from the Command and Conquer Series in that it doesn't need to get close to the opponent, just the time it needs to deploy but a terrible blast radius if it is to be seen at first since it's only a giant laser from the sky.

The Tailed Beast Ball, although destructive, has a shorter range, highly unstable, and a big blast radius that's enough to be considered as a city buster or an actual Nuclear Warhead. I am not kidding about that, just look up Pain vs Naruto all over again and watch the Six Tails in its incomplete Tailed Beast Ball literally take up a huge blast after it unsuccessfully tries to erase Pain off the face of the Earth. It doesn't need that much prep time to activate as much as Etherion, send a Jinchuuriki in the middle of town, get it agitated enough, boom, no more town. An equivalent that I could compare this is to a ghost or spectre unit from Starcraft in the moment that a highly specialized unit is deployed and calls on a nuclear strike on a specified target and watch the wanton destruction commence.

So in terms of power, **Tailed Beast Bomb**

In Accuracy: **Etherion**

Speed: **Tailed Beast Bomb**

Range: **Etherion**

Pick whatever you like is better, whatever is more useful or whatever the hell it is that makes you think it's better. Personally, I'd choose the TB bomb due to its destructive nature and the worst kind of Psychological Rape that you can send to your unsuspecting enemy. Rev up the paranoia for me will you?

Next up, Unwanted Traveling.


	5. Roar

_Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on to which it is poured._

_-Mark Twain_

* * *

Chapter Five: Roar

Lightning streaked and danced all around them, the sound of a thousand birds chirping echoed from the thick and dense forest as one ebony haired boy, laced with his bloodlust and insanity charged at them head on, eyes wide open, Sharingan spinning madly. His breath was deep as excitement, exhilaration and adrenalin burst forth like a broken dam as he heard his own footsteps stomping on the forest floor all the while charging straight to his intended target.

"Chidori (Chirping of a Thousand Birds)…" Sasuke charged straight to Yamato as the wooden column acted as a vertical platform, his feet smashing and latching on to the trunk like thunder echoing into the blue skies.

Sasuke's charge however, was easily stopped when an oversized fist smashed its way towards him, destroying the wooden pillar and sending the crazed boy hurtling towards the dense forest.

Another set of explosions escaped the forest as Sai continued to bombard Sasuke from above with his swift birds.

"Don't let him get the chance to use any of his jutsus!" Yamato commanded as Chouji and Neji charged up front, jumping into the fray.

"Katon: Housenka (Fire Release: Mythical Fire Flower)!" Small bursts of fireballs escaped from Sasuke's mouth, forcing Chouji and Neji to break formation.

Neji was about to counter-attack and Sasuke literally _blurred_ away from his line of sight and appeared right next to Chouji with Kusanagi drawn in a reverse grip.

"Die." Sasuke simply commanded and in one fluid motion, swung his arm horizontally, a streak of blue escaping his blade as it went for the kill.

**CLANG!**

Sparks of small embers escaped and the sound of metal hitting against metal made Sasuke's sword stop in its attack, Sasuke looked as to why and noticed that Chouji gave a proper reaction to his attack.

The larger boy blocked his sword with just one arm and he parried it with his armor.

"You may be faster Sasuke, but I'm stronger!" Chouji mentioned as he overpowered Sasuke in just a few seconds. His free right hand then closed into a fist and sent it once more straight at Sasuke's face.

The Uchiha ducked out of the incoming punch and smashed the hilt of his blade on Chouji's gut. Chouji staggered for a moment as held his stomach in pain, fully exposing the back of his neck at the Uchiha who was standing upright.

"You're stronger alright, but I'm smarter." Sasuke mentioned this as he brought his sword down only for it to be deflected when a small senbon needle flicked it away.

"More nuisances…" Sasuke mentioned as he kicked Chouji away and chased after the person who fired the weapon.

"I'll deal with you later." Sasuke continued as he jumped away from the scene.

He stopped when Neji had suddenly appeared at his side and prepared to strike him well on his neck.

Sasuke grabbed a branch and used his momentum to spin upwards and landed on the said branch. He glared at the Hyuuga prodigy who instantly made a snap turn back to him with hands drawn.

"Goukakyou no Jutsu (Grand Fireball Skill)" Sasuke then breathed out a large ball of flame from his mouth directly at Neji who immediately spun and pumped chakra to every tenketsu he had.

"Hakkeshou Kaiten (Divination Whirl)!"

Blue, ephemeral energy swirled around Neji as he spun, effectively shielding him from the large ball of fire that the Uchiha had sent to him. The flames scattered and dissipated, the small, almost lucid embers fell to the gently swaying grass, lighting them on fire.

"I always hated your clan." Sasuke mumbled as his eyes focused on Neji, the Hyuuga showed neither disdain nor animosity towards him, only that stoic frown that many Hyuuga were known for.

Neji then swivelled, he dashed sideways as Sasuke ran straight towards him. His right hand crackled in lightning once more as he then focused it to a fine point. A long, beam of light extended from his hand, like a spear pointed towards Neji at an incredible speed. Neji's eyes widened as he spun to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack and grazing his left torso.

A grit of pain escaped his lips as Neji dashed towards Sasuke with palms ready. The Uchiha then swung his Chidori Eisou (One Thousand Birds True Spear) sideways, towards where Neji was. The Hyuuga gracefully evades Sasuke's random onslaught by a narrow width and dashed towards him seeing his chance when the spear like jutsu completely missed him.

With an outstretched hand, Neji managed to land a blow to Sasuke's left torso, specifically, his chest.

A high pitched sound was heard throughout the two, enough for Sasuke to stop dead in his tracks and staggered in the same manner as Chouji earlier.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he gasped in pain. Blood seeped out of his mouth, falling down to his chin and then to the forest floor.

Sasuke was hit.

Neji didn't stop there. He wanted to finish this as fast as he could and immediately went for Sasuke's throat, the Uchiha, staggered backwards a little, clumsily dodging an attack from his enemy's hand. Sasuke then grabbed Neji by the arm, taking the Hyuuga by surprise as Sasuke grinned menacingly.

"Chidori Nagashi (One Thousand birds Current)." Sasuke said with that smile as electricity began coursing throughout his body, effectively shocking Neji with his paralysis technique.

The Hyuuga, who had already noticed the chakra build up from Sasuke's body, stepped back as he cushioned himself from the attack by converting his chakra into wind and applying it thinly around him.

He had to admit, the idea of controlling something as wild as the very wind itself was difficult, even just a very small amount was difficult to maintain. But the principles were easy enough for even a novice to understand. Astonishingly, the learning wasn't as steep as he thought however, as the ability to control the wind wasn't what was necessary in using Fuuton at its maximum potential. No, it simply required one to fine tune it, set it to a point where it turns into its most devastating form.

And fortunately for Neji, he had already known about that. Wind was an element of unmatched devastation and danger, as such, the more it is contained, the more powerful the recoil becomes making it almost nigh impossible to defend against. As a testament to this, Naruto's simple but deadly Rasen Shuriken becomes a prime example of how simple but difficult theories work.

And if it was one thing Neji was good at, it's his refinement of his techniques. He improves them and uses them to a great effect.

The current that came from Sasuke's Chidori Nagashi dissipated as Sasuke's face twitched ever so slightly. His scowl had somehow changed for a few seconds before returning back to what he had on moments before.

Undeterred at this, the Uchiha charged at Neji with his Sharingan spinning. Intent on taking down this nuisance before anymore surprises catches him off guard.

His feet stomped on to the forest floor, and the tip of his blade dragged on to the ground carving the surface and leaving dust in his wake. Neji backpedalled as Sasuke charged at him, hoping to ram into the Hyuuga with his sword.

The Hyuuga was passive and remained calm. His Byakugan's near three-sixty vision kept him from winding up to a place where he could be cornered. The crazed Uchiha was hell bent on taking him down. Perhaps in his insanity induced rage, he has forgotten the fact that the Hyuuga figuratively have eyes on the back of their heads. Or is it that the Uchiha has something planned beneath his sleeve? Nevertheless he should be careful. Uchiha Sasuke has yet to bring his most powerful arsenals into play and he has yet to deliver a disabling blow.

A kunai had suddenly made itself towards Neji's head.

With but a simple tilt, the offending object flew past his head. But what came next shocked him by surprise.

It was a line of steel wire extended in full tension, straight and true, followed by a myriad of kunai tied with more steel wire.

* * *

In some other part of Fiore:

Curiosity is a very tempting nature. It gnaws on people's minds until that feeling is sated with a proper explanation or discovery. It comes in many forms and approaches at the most critical of times. It ravages like flames through a forest and is soothed with ever more concerning knowledge like a continuous drizzle. It appears in many forms, in questioning, in bewilderment, or in wonder.

Right now, there was a person that was curious, bewildered to be more precise, about a certain man's actions.

Urtear had to confess, she was stumped by what Sieglein was currently musing in his head. The man was silently humming a tune to himself with a smile plastered on his face. The councilman's assistant had a raised eyebrow at this, what could have brought out this man from the safety presented in Era? Sieglein was a man with agendas; he has motives for almost everything he does. So she knew that he had something in mind when he requested for a leave in a week from the magic council.

"If you keep up that frown of yours, Urtear, your face will remain that way for the rest of your life." Gerard mentioned and interrupted her thoughts when he faced her with a wicked smirk.

"No, Sieglein-sama, I'm just curious… Why are we out here anyway?" Urtear asked and the man's grin widened.

"Come now, Urtear, surely you jest me with your words. You know as much as I do as to why we are out here and not in my office back in Era." Sieglein mentioned and Urtear's frown never left her face.

"Remember when I presented the news that several dark guilds were attacked in a matter of two months just about a week ago?" He asked.

Urtear gave a nod. The councilman then continued, "Well, with the council remaining unconcerned over this matter, I became curious about the issue myself."

Yes, she had heard of news of several dark guilds falling in the hands from an individual. A great feat in itself, if the guilds the person took down weren't so feeble. It's not of her concern anyway; the dark guilds that were annihilated were under Oracion Seis and Raven Tail. Grimoire Heart couldn't care less.

"Has the council approved of your leave?" The woman asked and Gerard nodded his head.

The blue haired councilman answered wistfully, "I did it under the guise of a vacation. Our little troublemaker is making a mess of things. It's why I'm personally seeing the matter myself."

Now, Urtear was dumbfounded, "The dark guilds are not of your concern unless extermination is ordered, right? I don't see why you should look into the matter, isn't he doing us a favor?"

Sieglein shook his head at this, "True, but it's better to remain vigilant rather than be complacent, don't you think?"

Urtear gave a simple nod at Sieglein's answer. But inwardly, she was having different ideas.

No, that wasn't Sieglein's only reason why he would want to see this obviously dangerous person. Something in this whole situation turned unexpected. She had never even seen Sieglein act like this. He was willing to risk himself to see this through. Not the Sieglein she had come to know.

When they arrived at the suspected area where the dark guild was supposed to be, Urtear looked on in morbid fascination at the burning pile of corpses, slowly being eaten away by small black flames dancing around. The guild house was now nothing more than a smouldering pile of rubble, with dead men most probably inside. The stench of burning flesh and death wafted on their noses as looked around to assess the damage. Urtear had a scowl on her face as she watched this scene. Those black flames looked awfully familiar, so familiar in fact that it caused her to scowl even further.

'_Did Zancrow do this?' _Urtear asked to herself. No way would that person suddenly come out here and do something like this. Master Hades had warned them after all. These were Zancrow's flames, flames said to slay even gods or at least, something of a similar effect. Urtear held back her hand from touching the small fire, just standing close to the flames felt like going near a hot furnace.

The blue haired council member looked around and spoke with no emotion betraying his face, "By the looks of it, I'd say it's been going on for days."

"Are we to assume that we're close, Sieglein-sama?" Urtear asked, her eyes never leaving the flickering black flames that consumed anything that it touched.

Sieglein gave a menacing grin as he looked over at Seawood Forest. His eyes then shifted from the canopy of green leaves to a flock of birds fluttering away.

"Oh yes, we're _very _close."

* * *

Seawood Forest:

Neji's attack really hurt him! It felt like a thousand needles pushed its way inside when he was hit. He had never had the pleasure of fighting a Jyuuken user before. But he knew the basics on what not to do against them. Although that would be hard to do, putting theory into practice was what he was good at ever since. He now knew to never try to fend a Hyuuga off within arms reach. Instead, he should immediately step away.

Which was why he had unleashed this set of kunai barrages towards Neji, the Hyuuga would never know what hit him. In truth, he had only used this on two persons, it was too wasteful of equipment and too impractical to boot. The amount of wire he needed, the amount of kunai he needed, they were far, far too wasteful.

The hail of knives, with steel wires tied to their rings, flew in every which way. With the Sharingan's predicting abilities, Sasuke fired more shuriken and kunai and hitting those with wires attached to them, ricocheting to which ever way he desired them to.

Neji was quick to react and performed another Divination Whirl deflecting the rain of kunai, and Neji was quick to notice his mistake.

Sasuke had a grin plastered on his face when he _pulled_ the near invisible steel wires in his hands, yanking the projectiles and in the effect that he wanted, entangled Neji with it.

Once more sensing a kill that he wanted, Sasuke's eyes widened and his devious grin turned maniacal. The Uchiha bit the iron wires and immediately began performing a fire technique.

"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Skill)"

Orange flames then began seeping out of Sasuke mouth and travelled through the steel wiring as if it had oil on it, the all consuming flames travelled in a fast pace as it zoomed towards Neji at incredible speeds.

It was then that Sai had just swooped in from above and jumped from the ink bird he had been riding on as the eagle met on with Sasuke's technique in a head on collision. Sai, on the other hand, channelled chakra into the small tanto and slashed away at the wires holding Neji in place.

The eagle made of ink then crashed on to the flames causing the fire to almost stop only for Sai to turn back with hands placed in a seal.

"Choju Giga (Super Beast Imitation Picture): Metsubou (Destruction)"

The ink bird quickly grew in size, bubbling to about as twice as Sasuke's height before bursting and exploding in an incredible amount of force all the while sending Sasuke flying (being close to the epicentre of the explosion) and both Sai and Neji bracing for impact.

Yamato was quick to capitalize this moment to trap Sasuke inside his Mokuton field.

He began weaving seals with his hands and ended it in boar before slamming both of his hands on the ground, "Mokuton: Kenpa Rokuseki (Wood Release: Detecting Six Pillars)"

It was then that Yamato expanded the technique to a greater effect, letting the six wooden beams expand all around the area where they were all placed. With this, Uchiha Sasuke wouldn't escape.

"Mokuton: Mokubunshin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Wooden Replication Skill)" Yamato then performed another technique and four more clones of himself popped up from the ground.

"Get to the others and inform them of Sasuke's position. With this, any form of sneak attacks would be next to impossible."

The four clones wordlessly nodded and scattered all around.

Sasuke got up from the area he had crashed into. He could hear nothing but the sound of a high pitched ringing. It was probably due to that explosion earlier. So much for a head on assault.

In fact, Sasuke was mildly impressed. He had never expected this little group to last this long against him; they kept him from using his more powerful techniques. He had disregarded the earlier assumption now that this small platoon was kicking his ass far too much for his liking. He groaned and held his head, the sign of a headache sinking in. Using his sword for support, Uchiha Sasuke stood up from the rubble and began thinking much more lucidly.

If a head on assault was not going to work, sneak attacks and long range jutsus would be better. Susanoo and Amaterasu, he would keep on reserve. But if he was going to get out of this alive, he would need to think more clearly and move fast. He at least needs to take out their eye-in-the-sky, their sensor and support before taking on the much more battle oriented members of the bunch.

Little did Sasuke know that he was running out of options far too quickly than he imagined.

* * *

Era:

While Kakashi was registering their guild in the magic council's main office, Naruto, Gai and Anko were walking around town to try to do some sightseeing before going back with Kakashi for his test, something the cycloptic Jounin found to be very worrisome because he had basically left Anko, Gai and Naruto without proper supervision.

Not that Gai and Anko weren't responsible adults they were capable of handling themselves just fine. But he knew for a fact that Naruto was a magnet for trouble and that Anko had a tendency in trying to NOT be a mediator. That left Gai as his sole light of hope in keeping the two out of anything that would shoot down their chances of sticking their heads out to where it shouldn't be, directly or otherwise which wasn't saying much since Gai had a tendency to attract unwanted attention too.

"You got a lot of nerve asking for an apology when you tried to feel me up, you damn sicko!" Anko had said to a man that stood before her. Naruto was holding her back by the shoulders rather forcefully and dragging her away. In truth, Naruto wanted to punch the guy as well for being an idiot. He obviously wasn't aware that Anko could be quite a sociopath in some instances.

"Not my fault you have a nice ass, bitch!"

Naruto seriously wanted to punch the guy.

"WHAT? THAT'S IT!"

Naruto could barely contain the angry woman, "Anko, calm down, damn it! Didn't Kakashi-sensei tell us to lay low?"

Anko seemingly calmed down at that before going after the man again who was now walking away. Naruto had to hold her by the shoulders once more and dragged her back.

"Let me go, kid! I'm going to kill that punk!"

On to the other side of the plaza, Gai was simply sipping his tea in a most befitting way with his suit.

He didn't know why, but he got a sudden urge to drink tea and feel sophisticated today. So who was he let go and discover the finer things in life once in a while? Besides, Naruto-kun has a better handle of the situation right now than Anko does and he saw no need for him to mediate.

"Excuse me, my good man, but might I inquire of what goes well with this special brew of tea?"

"Gai-sensei, could you please help? Anko's seriously trying to break free!" Naruto shouted as Anko was about to cut loose and probably impale her molester with extreme prejudice.

Naruto gave a sigh, since when did he become the one to stop fights now?

He sighed once more when Gai calmly offered Anko some tea to calm her nerves. He hoped his clones would find his friends sooner or later. As little by little, the clones began disappearing and he could feel the strain in his head slowly taking its toll.

When Anko wordlessly accepted the cup of tea and drank, Gai looked at the blonde who was looking quite concerned.

"Worried about your friends, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto wordlessly nodded.

"Yeah, just waiting here for Kakashi-sensei to finish is making me uneasy. I should be out there. Sasuke is out there and I don't think that it would be a good idea for the others to face him…" Naruto said as he looked to his left, his cup of tea left untouched.

Gai shook his head at this and for once that Naruto has ever known the man, looked terribly serious, "Naruto-kun, do you put your trust in your friends like you do with your sensei?"

Naruto wordlessly nodded at that. Gai couldn't push any further, his actions had already told him about his answer.

"Then simply believe in them as they believe in you."

Naruto turned back to Gai with a surprised expression. What was this man saying? There's simply no way for any of them to match Sasuke as he is now!

"Faith is a difficult thing to place on your peers. It is blind, inconceivable and most of the time, it only leads to disillusionment of an abandoned dream." Gai added as he looked at his porcelain cup.

"But faith is something that each of us needs to put out, a need to place it. I would have not entered my team into the chuunin exam if I did not have faith in my students and faith in my teachings to get them through. If I were one of them, Naruto-kun, I would have been offended by you insulting my youthful pride."

Naruto looked down on his cup once more with a frown. He sighed and began sipping the tea as his two superiors did.

'_When did I stop believing in my friends?' _Naruto thought, long and hard, about that question. And for the first time in a long while, Naruto had other matters in his head.

* * *

Seawood Forest:

Mistgun could tell that there was a battle occurring. He could see different birds flying away in haste in different directions, the smell of soot and the hazy cover of the smoke not for from here was a dead giveaway.

A wooden perfectly symmetrical square pillar then caught his attention as it sprouted above the canopy of the trees.

The mysterious mage of Fairy Tail seemingly got curious as he got closer.

'_This is Wood Alchemy magic. But why would it need to be made like this? What would it do?' _The mage wondered. It was weird. The erected pillar of wood seemingly didn't have much going for it, but it seemingly had some sort of purpose. As he floated to the very peak of the structure, he looked at five more of the pillars covering a vast area of the forest and on to the northeast side of the area. That was where the flames were coming from.

He steeled himself, likely discovering a battle at the area of the forest fire and floated levitated towards it, mindful of any hostile encounter.

On another side of the forest, a woman leaned against a tree, looking over her right shoulder, alert and cautious about their current opponent.

Shizune leaned against a tree, looking to her side, a clone of Yamato's had made its presence known to her.

"The field has now been set up, Shizune-san. We're ready when you are." Yamato informed her and she nodded.

It was time to get this over with.

Sasuke walked, despite the fact that he was in quite a disadvantage due to the numbers alone, he needed to take things a lot slower. His impatience had already cost him two times the mistake for charging in so blindly like that. Normally, it wouldn't be ideal to move slowly like this, but making sudden movements was bad as well.

The thought of a strategic retreat was one of the things he had already thrown out the window. This was his chance after all, a chance of revenge once more, satisfaction of a different kind, an ecstasy worth having. To him, revenge was the only thing keeping him running. And to be this close, it was maddeningly exquisite. It made him tremble with excitement, with a euphoric sense of accomplishment, a thirst worth quenching a million times over.

He stopped and quickly leaned against the nearest tree as he heard the sound of rustling bushes. He took a small peek to his left but soon made a fatal mistake when a person had appeared to his right side.

'_A distraction? Damn, on my blind spot as well!' _Sasuke's Sharingan widened as he jumped back when the name of the jutsu was called out.

"Ninpo: Zesshi Nensan! (Ninja Art: Acid Slime)"

Acid spewed forth from the attacker's mouth as Sasuke stepped back. The acid barely hitting him and landing on a few trees, vaporizing the barks and sending the trees toppling down below.

Sasuke growled in irritation. He was getting sloppy.

Sasuke backpedalled to safety as his pursuer gave chase. The Uchiha didn't have a moment of reprieve as a rolling red object was making a beeline straight to him. His Sharingan flaring wildly, Sasuke immediately performed a somersault mere inches before it could make impact and went over the giant red object. He landed on the ground with but a grace of a lithe gymnast and staggered back once a hail of senbon made its presence known on his foot.

'_The trees are making it harder to know where they are coming from. They're taking advantage of my viewing perception and numbers against me very well.' _Indeed, the forest did provide a veil that made it hard for him to do any damage. They struck where he couldn't see, and whatever distraction that they did, they worked.

"I'm getting tired of this." Sasuke said, irritation soon rearing its head from him when he had gotten away relatively in one piece. He clutched his chest in pain from Neji's strike earlier. That attack really messed him up. He somehow gained a new but begrudging deep respect for his former teammate, who had withstood a beating that hurt this much back then when they were younger.

Whichever the case, he needed to get past these people. For them to attack him this much, it just meant that they're guarding something relatively important. Like say, that bastard, Naruto.

A smile escaped his lips; maybe _THAT'S _why they were desperate to stop him. If not, then there's someone of equal importance that they were protecting.

When Chouji had stopped rolling, Neji had made his presence known with Byakugan fully active. Both of them were now rushing at Sasuke, who now stopped at a considerable distance, his speed was still greater.

Neji, seeing the massive build up of chakra coming from their rogue target, immediately stopped as did Chouji who noticed when the Hyuuga stopped as well.

Yamato, who had by now caught up with Shizune, Neji and Chouji, shouted to the two who had abruptly stopped rushing at Sasuke.

"Retreat to fair distance, you two! He's about to…"

It was too late.

"Suffer the rage and belligerence of the fierce god of storms, Susanoo!"

Then, miasmic purple chakra began forming all around the Uchiha as it soon formed and began to take shape.

A fierce war cry soon escaped the skies of the forest.

* * *

Somewhere else:

Erza Scarlet did not know what to think about now. Here she was in a different town, with the company of Natsu and Gray, looking observant on the group of ninjas that were discussing their current plan of action.

"You sure it's a good idea to let them in on this? I mean, Erza, sure. She can behave but Natsu and Gray?" Sakura asked rather incredulously to Shikamaru. Natsu and Grey always had this rivalry going on for reasons God knows what. Any normal person could tell that Natsu and Grey were close to a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before one of them seriously hurt anyone or each other for that matter.

"I couldn't help it. Makarov-san wanted them to tag along. He says it could be educational for them." Shikamaru answered. His hands were in his pockets after adjusting his green flack vest. Sakura simply sighed at this as she waited like the rest.

"Bah! This is boring, Lee! How do you guys manage to last long like this? We're not even doing anything!" Natsu yelled out grumpily.

Currently, they were out of Magnolia to a town just east of there and three hours by train.

"That is not the actual case, Natsu-san. The others are out looking for any information that could help us with this mission. It is most youthful that we try and be patient while we get the needed answers from our comrades." Lee refuted Natsu's indignant cries of boredom.

"Natsu, has anybody in the guild told you that you need to calm down?" Tenten asked, though she was not expecting an affirmative to her answer. If Natsu is this impulsive, then many of the guild members didn't bother with Natsu's tendencies.

"Almost everybody does. But he doesn't listen." Gray answered plainly for the pink haired dragon slayer. He gave a condescending grin over Natsu and the said boy gave a scowl at this.

"I don't need _you_ to answer for me, you bastard!" Natsu disputed to the ice mage before grinning wickedly and pointing at Gray.

"Besides, shouldn't you be wearing a shirt, you pervert?"

Gray's eyes widened as he stared at himself and indeed he wasn't wearing the item in question. But instead of searching for his lost article of his wardrobe, he clashed heads with Natsu who was more than willing to do the same.

"What'd you say, pinky?"

"You want a fight eh? THAT'S FINE, BRING IT!"

The rest of the company present simply shook their heads at this.

"Gray, Natsu, stand down." Erza said, her tone told the ninjas that she won't like repeating herself. Natsu and Gray, who had by now developed a phobia for the woman, quickly changed moods and began acting in front of Erza as if they were merely acting. Erza sighed and shook her head in disappointment.

How did she get into this? It seems like she shouldn't have dared to let Shikamaru take her for a fool like this. Mira had said that the lazy looking boy was crafty, at least smart enough to guide a large team.

* * *

_Flashback:_

_Shikamaru looked closely at the job request boards laid in front of him, to his side was Lisanna, who was helping with reading the job requests that were on the board. So far, there was nothing that was relatively easy in each of the requests. That and he thought that there were apparently bandits prevailing even in Fiore._

"_Here's a relatively easy one for you guys, Shikamaru-san." Lisanna pulled the request from the pin up board and read it out loud in front of him and his partner for the day, Tenten, who was looking quite curious herself about their next job._

"_It says here that there's some sort of apparition that's been plaguing a town just to the east of here and the townspeople wanted to get rid of it, there's more details of the job by the town's mayor when you go there. The reward is about thirty thousand jewels." Lisanna offered the object to Shikamaru's hands as his partner for the day was scratching her head in bewilderment._

"_Ghosts, huh? Isn't this a bit of a stretch for this to be a job? It could be just a harmless prank set by a couple of troublemaking kids."_

_Shikamaru was still thinking about it, "The reward is kind of hefty for it being just an investigation and dispersal mission, though. How this turned into an official mission is beyond me."_

_Lisanna was chuckling at the ranting boy's antics before commenting, "There can be gaffes in handling them, but most of those missions are screened and reviewed on before they can be given the okay. This looks like one of those missions that either flew past their heads or it was looked over rather leniently."_

_Shikamaru scratched his chin and groaned, "Well, with all the bureaucratic red tape that this thing has to go through I guess mistakes can be present from time to time." _

"_So, we're doing this job or not?" Tenten asked, looking at Shikamaru who was thinking rather deeply at this._

"_I don't see why we won't but just to be safe, go get the others. This thing may not look like much but I can't risk it if worst comes to worst."_

_Something about this job stank. The information given to him was very limited. Unknown spectres were running around the town? Is that it, for a whooping thirty-thousand jewels? Something didn't add up. What kind of information was there that the mayor had to talk about it in person? What did he purposely left out?_

_His thoughts were disrupted when Tenten gave him a mock salute and left. Shikamaru simply shook his head while Lisanna chuckled at the lazy chuunin's expense._

"_You never leave anything to chance do you, Shikamaru-san?" Lisanna asked. It was more like a statement rather than a question. But Shikamaru replied nonetheless._

"_I only take a chance if I can't help it."_

"_Lisanna, Shikamaru, I have something to ask." A voice called out. From the sound of the voice, Shikamaru could tell it was a woman. But the power behind the voice told him of how hardened the person was. He knew who it already was._

"_Erza-san, is something wrong?" Lisanna asked. Shikamaru's guess was correct._

_The lazy chuunin turned his half lidded eyes towards the red head that was standing near him. Unlike Shikamaru, Erza was a rigid person. His complete and total opposite, sure, he was serious when the time called for it, but Erza was mostly serious every time the guild members see her. Whereas Shikamaru always had that half-lidded look anytime people saw him, Erza always had that no-non-sense mask on almost everyday, Shikamaru could be serious too, but not to the point where his actions in normalcy would be rigid and awkward._

"_I haven't seen Natsu in the guild for a while. I'm worried that he might do something…" She paused for a moment trying to find the right words before finally continuing, "Inappropriate. He can be quite destructive if left unsupervised."_

_Shikamaru noted how smitten Lisanna was with the Pink haired boy that had a scale like muffler. Hell, everyone was aware of that except maybe for Natsu, but maybe even HE was somewhat aware if the smile on Natsu's face was any indication. Perhaps he was more perceptive, unlike some people he knew._

_Back in Era, a blonde haired, blue eyed boy sneezed just outside a small café._

_Looking to Shikamaru, Lisanna simply gave off a nervous laugh as she said to the red haired mage, "Natsu usually hangs out with Lee-san just near his house. Have you tried there?"_

"_If you're going there, I would advise in not trying to goad Lee to one of his conditions. I need him and some of the others for this job." Shikamaru indicated the paper in his hands and shrugged when Erza raised an eyebrow at this. Curious as to what the job was, Erza asked Shikamaru to let her see the job description was._

_For the most part, Erza was genuinely curious. She had known that Shikamaru's group took jobs that were nothing out of the ordinary or in terms that she should find as mundane as chores. In fact, she would daresay that his group took chores on a day to day basis._

_When she read the job flier, her eyes were suspiciously darting to the reward and to the job description. Something about this was off putting._

"_I can't guarantee that this will be as simple as what is requested. I will have to consult master about this." Erza pointed out and placed it back to the board but only stopped when Shikamaru answered._

_"It's why I've wanted Lee and the others here, the more we are the bigger chances of success that we'll have." Shikamaru then grabbed the paper from Erza's hands. The red head looked at Shikamaru with a scowl at this as her features darkened._

_If Shikamaru wasn't used to his mother by now, he would have shuddered from the look that Erza was giving him._

"_I can't have you risking your lives on an ill-informed mission. Guests you may be, but responsibility still falls on to this guild." She stood firmly against him._

_Shikamaru put his left arm on the bar table and rested his chin on his left palm._

"_We've gotten missions with very little to almost no information at all. You'd be surprised just how edgy we actually are whenever we do a job. This might be seedy, but it's good enough for all of us to handle."_

_Erza's features darkened further, "You overestimate your strength too much."_

_By this time, many who were watching the scene were now quivering in fear. When Erza gave that look it usually meant that there would be pain involved. To the sober bystanders that were watching the exchange, they were all staring at Shikamaru with either respect because he didn't even bat an eyelash when Erza gave that look, or they were all feeling some sort of impending doom approaching the lazy chuunin._

"_What we lack in strength we make it up with wits, Erza. We may not compare to you or even Laxus, but we have our heads righty placed where they are."_

"_I seriously doubt that. On the two months that you've all been here, I've never seen any of you being gauged by the master for your abilities. If you want this mission, you're going to have to see if master would approve of letting you all have some sort of test to gauge your abilities." Erza said as she walked away.  
_

"_If you're so doubtful about us, then why don't you come with us and see how we work?" Shikamaru asked. Erza knew better than to be goaded like that, but she knew that if she wanted to clear any doubt about their abilities, then this was the best chance that she had. It didn't help that Shikamaru didn't even look threatened at all._

"_Sounds like a good idea!" A voice suddenly interrupted them. Turning to the guild's main door, Erza and Shikamaru saw the only person that could quell to whatever tension that was rising in between the aloof chuunin and the serious mage._

"_Master, are you sure?" The red head asked while Makarov simply waved it off._

"_Shikamaru doesn't look like the type to take on unnecessary risks. If you want, you could go with them to see how they do things. Maybe you two could learn from each other about your respective skills." With that, the guild master of Fairy Tail went to the bar table and sat there looking quite content._

_A few more deliberation with herself, and Erza went out but not before hearing what Shikamaru and Sakura were now discussing._

* * *

_Flashback end:_

"Wow, you're pretty impressive, Erza-san, I haven't seen anyone who could put Natsu on a leash this much. What's your secret?" Tenten asked while watching Natsu and Gray continue to quiver under Erza's gaze.

"It's tough love, lots and lots of tough love." She said, planting her double edged sword in front of the two mages that made them shudder. Sakura simply laughed nervously as Erza now nodded stiffly before switching her attention back to Shikamaru.

Out in the background, Natsu and Gray were singing out loud about how they were best friends and how much they got along.

Sakura rolled her eyes at this as she said to the pair, "Knock it off you two. You aren't fooling anyone."

Turning her attention from the singing pair and back to the others, she resisted the urge to palm her face when Erza and Lee were nodding solemnly.

"You two should behave like that more often." Erza commented with a stiff nod.

"Indeed, a rivalry sown with friendship is the most youthful thing there is!" Lee added.

Sakura, Tenten and Shikamaru all looked at the people in their group and all three of them thought the same.

'_You've got to be joking.'_

* * *

Cait Shelter:

Wendy was restless. A few hours ago, she had heard news of Shizune-san's group leaving the village for unknown reasons. Then there was the masked man that Robaul was talking to. Even though she was still pretty young, she could already tell that something was definitely going on. Charle was silent about the whole thing, feeling the tension in the air as well. She could tell how nervous she was, but she didn't know why.

Just then, an inhuman cry pierced her ears, and _something_, for she could not describe the utter terror that befell her and the object that caused it, forced her to quiver from the feeling. It was dark. She could feel the anger, rage and insanity growing by the minute. She wanted to curl into a ball and sit in a corner just because of this primal feeling of a chaotic evil coming from the forest.

But she couldn't just sit here. That much she knew. She was a mage of Cait Shelter. For that, she knew that she had a responsibility to uphold, to protect her beloved guild.

Pushing the thought of fear back to the depths of her mind, Wendy slowly opened her door, a gesture that Charle found disconcerting.

"Wendy! Close that door! Chief Robaul sent us in your home for a reason!" Her friend admonished her. But she didn't listen. She knew full well that whatever out there was posing a danger to her home. She knew she couldn't just stand here and do nothing.

"B-But… Shizune-nee-san and the others… I'm worried about them. I'm also worried about the guild."

"Let Chief Robaul and those people handle it! You are far too young to go out there on your own!" Charle was pertaining to Shizune and the others. Unlike Wendy, Charle was almost never close to anyone of the strangers. It was in Charle's nature to be wary after all. But Wendy grew to like at least Shizune like an older sister to her, the woman was kind and she was glad that Wendy helped from time to time in managing everyone's well being. It was no surprise that Charle either didn't care or simply thought clearer than her due to her having not much of an attachment to those strange people, but Wendy was different.

She looked down, her hands clinging tightly on the door's edges as she bit her lip. Charle could tell that she wanted to go out there and help her and her companions.

"Wendy, close that door now. Whatever it is that made them left, I'm sure they can handle it. They're strong. Don't go there knowing that you could be more of a liability than of help."

Suddenly, Wendy's knees buckled, she could feel them losing the strength that they had as she unceremoniously crumpled on the floor, kneeling and her forehead resting on the wooden door with tears flowing freely.

"Why am I so helpless?" She asked to no one in particular. Charle simply walked to the door and gently closed it.

But not before Wendy interrupted her action.

"W-Wendy, why are you stopping me?" Charle asked. Her surprise was obvious at this point.

"It's because I want to go there! I want to help Shizune-nee-san and the others! I want to fight for my guild!" She cried out.

"I'm weak and my powers would barely help anyone! But I don't care! I want to do what I can! It's because if I don't, I won't be able to live with myself if they don't make it back!" She shouted as she forced her legs to stand, her trembling hands were now gone as she shouted what she had felt.

Charle noticed the minor detail. Her eyes twitched. Somehow, Wendy had ultimately suppressed her fear. The white bipedal cat stood there, completely surprised.

"It seems Wendy has found her resolve."

A voice had interrupted and the pair turned to the source, to the side of their small hut, Chief Robaul stood, a smile etched on his wrinkly face as he stared out into the forest, like he was longing to go outside.

"Chief Robaul?" Wendy asked. She was looking at the chief in surprise and curiosity.

"I knew this day would come, but I never expected it to be so soon." The old man merely gave a mirthful smile.

"The greatest strength that one can have is the strength of their bonds and their resolve. We grow stronger not because of our search for strength, but the strength of our bonds. When one becomes strong, so does the other."

With Robaul's words, Wendy was left speechless. The old guild master turned to his subordinate with a smile and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"Your heart is in the right place. Now go, your friends need you." With that, Chief Robaul gently pushed Wendy to Charle and turned his back from them.

"Let your body and mind grow strong and your heart, stronger."

Wendy's expression then turned from wonder to that of a serious one. Charle, who had been quiet by the chief's words since his arrival, simply looked on in disbelief.

Robaul pointed to the skies and shouted, "Now! Soar, Wendy! Make yourself known and prove that you are child of the sky! Take flight and become a true Dragon Slayer!"

Wendy soon grabbed Charle and the said girl transformed her wings to that of her Aera magic, taking with her arms, the now determined child of Cait Shelter.

Chief Robaul watched their youngest member soar to the sky. His smile never wavered. He knew that Wendy was strong and the friends that she made would only make her stronger.

* * *

Seawood Forest:

Intimidating.

That was what Neji could describe about the creature that stood before him. Now clad in the spiritual robe of a god fit for war, Susanoo's imposing, Tengu like appearance stood before them. The Sakenagi no Tachi (Sake Cutting Long sword) was now fully drawn from its gourd. In its presence, Neji realized how far and how deep into the abyss Sasuke had fallen. Although he had developed no attachments to the Uchiha like Sakura and Naruto, Neji could only look on in disappointment and a sombre expression escaped his face.

"You have fallen far from what you were used to be, Uchiha Sasuke." He could only say as Sasuke gave that defiant smirk against him.

"Fallen? I don't see it that way, Hyuuga. To me, I've become much more, liberated."

The ethereal creature then swung its sword, the mighty blade carving the land below as it severed and created a fissure on the ground. Neji took a huge leap back, along with Chouji as Susanoo pulled its blade from the severed earth.

"Be careful! Susanoo is most dangerous when it uses its bow!" Yamato shouted and as if on cue, the blade that it used earlier as a sword came flying straight and true, impaling the said Jounin by the torso and continuing to fly from his standing position, to a farther area in the forest.

"Yamato-taichou!" Chouji shouted as he turned to their team captain that was skewered. Chouji then heard the loud and raucous laughter that escaped throughout the forest.

He turned to Sasuke with his blood boiling, the plump boy suddenly charged towards the Uchiha. Sasuke smirked and loaded another ethereal blade to Susanoo's bow all the while uttering the word, "Fool."

Neji was the quicker one as he stopped Chouji. He tackled the large boy with all his strength as the blade turned arrow flew straight and true.

**TWANG!**

By just a hair's breath, Neji had evaded the purple blade beneath him as he tackled Chouji.

The both of them stumbled on the ground as the arrow whizzed past them before impaling another object within the forest.

"Why is Shino taking so long?" Neji asked to no one in particular and hid from Sasuke's sight. Towards the area where Yamato was supposedly impaled, Neji could see splinters of wood coming from Yamato's abdomen.

'_A wooden clone. Yamato-taichou must have substituted one of his clones.'_ Neji then turned his attention to Sasuke who was by now walking towards them, Susanoo's sword standing erect at his side.

"Who or what are you protecting that you intend to strike me down here? Is it him? Is he here?" Sasuke asked, as he continued to walk ominously towards them.

'_Is he referring __to Naruto?'_ Neji thought to himself.

"Chouji, we can't attack Sasuke head on like what you did. He's too strong for a straight forward attack. Shino has yet to act and we can't leave him waiting. I suppose you know of a single jutsu that has enough force to shatter any defense?"

Chouji nodded but had another thing to ask the Jounin, "B-But, Yamato-taichou is…"

"He's fine. He's lying in wait as the rest of us. The one Sasuke hit was a wooden clone. Right now, I'm trying to see a chakra pattern in Susanoo that can help us in finding its weakness." Neji immediately cut off. His attention never left Susanoo in its form.

His attention went from the area where Yamato was impaled, to Sasuke who was simply shrugging off any surprise attack that Shizune and the real Yamato were doing.

He was rather impressed with the jutsu as he scanned it. He could see flesh, bone and muscle formed like it was a real living being. It must be why materializing this form made from chakra was life draining. Neji watched as Sasuke approached them while walking, it seemed either Sasuke chose to walk on a leisurely pace or Susanoo had a terrible mobility.

From upfront, the chakra of the jutsu was strong, almost impenetrable. It was dense, thick and deeply layered. Many said that the most guarded area of a person on habitual instinct was what was placed in their line of sight. To Sasuke, it was upfront. Although from what Neji could tell, the strength of Susanoo was like the strength of one's own Sharingan. Meaning it is only stronger to where the eyes would normally see.

And if the principle of the human body could be applied to this living jutsu as well, then…

"Chouji, I have a plan." Neji stated as they immediately took a sprint in the opposite direction, taking a huge step away from the Uchiha.

Neji watched as Sasuke turned his vision towards them, Neji simply smirked.

Once, he gloated to Naruto about his absolute defense. If it was one of the things that Neji learned from his blonde friend, it's that no defense is absolute, no defense is impenetrable.

Shino was there, standing on a branch and kept a safe distance as he watched the skirmish commence

Throughout the whole battle, Shino remained hidden and observed in silent anticipation of the battle that commenced. From the branch that he was perching on, he was slowly letting his Kikaichu fall from his sleeves. He would reserve the special batch of insects in his person when the need arises. For now, he was simply letting his normal destruction bugs do the work needed.

When he saw Sasuke activate his Susanoo, Shino's eyebrows were raised when his insects became agitated.

"Chakra density is thick. The form is corporeal even if it came basically from chakra. Need to reassess the threat posed by Susanoo. The chakra is too much even for my Kikaichu."

Shino postponed his plan of attack when he noticed some of the bugs entering Sasuke's range were destroyed for an unknown condition. For now, at least with Sasuke maintaining that technique, he would be slow even though he was invulnerable. Without any warning then, Shino saw Neji charge at Sasuke head on. His eyebrow twitched and his concern grew.

Neji would never attack straight forward like that, except if Neji acted as a distraction. But even that would far too risky if that display of Susanoo's long range ability was to be seen.

'_I've noticed that it takes Sasuke's Susanoo three seconds to load the bolt and two seconds to fire it. The total is five seconds before the shot is fired. I need to time my Kaiten perfectly to survive.'_ Neji rushed at Sasuke with his Shunshin, as he counted the moments in which Sasuke was loading the bolt of Susanoo's weapon.

"Your mistake, Hyuuga!" Sasuke shouted and his expression changed into a wicked smirk, the blade loaded on to the bolt of Susanoo's bow and aimed it at Neji.

**TWANG!**

The storm god let loose his blade turned arrow as it flew to Neji at the most incredible of speeds.

Before Sasuke could fire his arrow, Neji had already spun.

"Kaiten!"

The chakra blade clashed with Neji's spherical dome and wisps of chakra scattered all about.

Although Neji's Kaiten was enough to deflect most of the attack that the arrow had done, the force of the impact forced Neji to lose his balance and was sent hurdling away, stopping his jutsu as he spun in mid air before crashing to a nearby tree back first.

Neji felt his back hit on the hard wood first as some of his ribs broke from the impact. Blood escaped his lips as he slumped down. Pain was now running in his body at an inhuman rate.

"Konoha's dog, all of you who laughed at my brother's sacrifice deserved to be purged from any place that you exist." Sasuke shouted in a controlled rage as he grinned menacingly but he stopped when Neji gave a weak smile to him.

"Y-you don't even know what's really happening… I pity you, Uchiha Sasuke. After everything that you've done, you're nowhere near the strong person that you used to be."

Sasuke's expression changed into a scowl. How dare this guy belittle his strength and accomplishments when he, now standing over Neji, the boy that was his senior, fellow prodigy and rookie of the year in their pre-adolescent years, was nothing more than a crumpled heap in front of him?

"You, Hyuuga Neji, are nothing but a weakling." Sasuke was about to grab his Kusanagi and pierce Neji with it but stopped when he heard the sound of footsteps hitting the ground.

He looked behind as he saw Chouji, now thin with his clothes very loose, charged behind him with his right arm reeled back, glowing a translucent light blue and a voice that he could hear that shouted the name of his jutsu.

"Choudan Bakugeki (Butterfly Bullet Bomber)!"

Much as the Sharingan's predicting capability was, it was no match to a manoeuvre that heavily exploited his weakness. His over reliance of his doujutsu and Susanoo had led him to this cornered position, his mobility was compromised with Susanoo but if he chose to end the jutsu, he would meet with Chouji's jutsu full force and possibly kill him.

**CRASH!**

Uchiha Sasuke could then hear the sound of Chouji's fist colliding on the back of his jutsu, specifically to where the spine of Susanoo was usually maintained. The entity let out a horrifying screech as Sasuke felt his vision shake.

Then, just like fragile glass, his jutsu shattered fully exposing Sasuke out in the open.

Sasuke's eyes widened at the sudden realization, as a new voice then said to him, "You fell for my trap."

Hands outstretched, Shino commanded his horde of insects that now surrounded Sasuke from all visible directions.

"Hijutsu: Mushidama (Secret Technique: Insect Sphere)"

It was then that Yamato, Sai and Shizune grabbed Neji and Chouji from their position as countless insects surrounded Sasuke. Chouji jumped, his wings made of chakra giving him additional airtime as he landed by Shino's side.

"I can't believe I had to resort to this jutsu just to pierce his defense." Chouji said as he looked at his right hand, it was still smoking from the punch that I did earlier.

"Worry not, but with this, Sasuke is now defeated, one of two threats is now gone." Shino replied as he adjusted his glasses.

"Amaterasu!"

Black fire soon erupted around Sasuke, setting off insects on fire all around him as they fell down from the most powerful fire jutsu.

Beneath the all consuming flames was a battered Uchiha Sasuke, blood dripping from his left eye, scratches, and bruises were prominent among his jaw line and more blood coming out of his mouth. But what they noticed was Sasuke's expression, it was a grin, disturbing and terrifying. The demented look that Uchiha Sasuke was giving them was putting everyone on edge.

"Down with you all, I will kill you all. You who trampled on the lives of every last one of my clansmen, my father, my mother and my brother!" Sasuke was now starting to mumble incoherently. Gone was his rational thought, for his rage had now taken form to a level of insanity they had never seen before.

Sasuke was desperate now, for Shino had consumed a considerable amount of chakra from him with that last attack. Add to the fact the strain of using Susanoo for that long was already putting him in an absurd amount of pain.

He concentrated chakra to his left eye once more as the group of five scattered about and all intercepted him on every side. Sasuke jumped, evading the surrounding group and gazed downwards preparing to fire another Amaterasu at all five of them, all within his line of sight.

Yamato and the others immediately realized their mistake. Sasuke had lured them into a fall sense of winning.

And they will pay for it with their lives.

Just before Sasuke could shout the name of the technique, the Uchiha's concentrated chakra stopped. Sasuke looked sideways, he could see the skies around him, clouds in grey and black as vast as the eye cans see.

Sasuke turned his head, obviously noticing that he was placed in a Genjutsu of sort. Behind him, a giant, dragon like frog was reaching out to him, its scaly right hand reached out to him as it tried to grab Sasuke, all the while, he heard the voice of one person whispering, "Matenrou (Tower of Babel)."

His Sharingan spun wildly, all the while as he stared at the gigantic demon that stood before him.

'_My Sharingan can't dispel this Genjutsu?'_

As the creature now grabbed hold of him and took the Uchiha closer, its mouth opened, revealing a row of sharp teeth that would make Kisame jealous. Saliva dripped from its mouth as its hot breath escaped, forcing Sasuke to grimace.

'_This Genjutsu is almost too real… Everything about this is fooling all of my senses!'_

It was then that Sasuke _snapped_.

His eyes darted to every direction that he could see, he was breathing deeply and heavily as his Sharingan contorted once more to the Mangekyou Sharingan. Desperation now fully rearing its head in his features, he shouted at the monster in front of him.

"YOU WON'T KILL ME! I WILL HAVE WHAT IS MINE!"

Black fire soon sprouted forth from all around him as he shouted forth the name of the technique once more.

"You will burn by my everlasting flames, Amaterasu!"

As if on cue, black fire had spread from him to a wider area, in them, he could hear the sound of people scampering away all around him.

Sasuke was whipping his head left and right, trying to break loose from the binds that held him in this illusion.

He struggled, breaking free as his emotions raged forth like a storm. Then, like a small ripple in the illusion, the creature froze, its body vibrating uncharacteristically as the Genjutsu shattered like glass.

It was then that the illusion broke.

His vision switched back to that of the forest, now being burned by the black fires of Sasuke's jutsu.

He whirled his head all around, looking for any signs of his current foes only finding none.

As the flames danced around him, Sasuke took a weary step forward and was met face to face with Aburame Shino. His hooded jacket was now missing, as his wild brown hair scattered about and hand drawn back. Sasuke couldn't tell how the Aburame had changed complexion, as he was pale several minutes ago. Sasuke could tell it was a jutsu, but the effect was what he didn't know.

Sasuke simply scoffed at it and didn't care anymore. He reeled his right hand back, concentrating lightning chakra to it as he simply blocked an obvious punch with his left forearm. He grinned when Shino was wide open. Taijutsu was never Shino's strongpoint. Unlike Kiba, Naruto and himself, Shino was average in that field. His hand to hand combat was always behind the more physical members of the group. It seemed time apart from the village never changed this status of Shino's ability.

But his intent to drive the Chidori through Shino's chest was not meant to be when he experienced pain like in his arm. As if a thousand nails were prickling at his arms continuously. He looked at his arm and saw it changing in color the same as Shino's but the difference was, _boils_ were growing from the infected area and slowly crept up. A sudden realization hit in is head of the fatal mistake he had just made.

Instead of driving his non infected arm into the Aburame, Sasuke used a forceful direct kick to Shino's mid section making the boy stumble back.

Now that Shino had effectively made his left hand useless, he couldn't do _any_ jutsu unless he had something to reverse the effects of whatever the Aburame did to him.

Still, he could not leave this to chance. Seeing his kick had made Shino stumble back for a moment, the opening was made clear, He let out a flurry of shuriken with his non-infected hand and peppered Shino with it. Combined with his Sharingan, the simple weapon of a throwing star became a deadly equation. Shino had poor Taijutsu ability, meaning his reaction wouldn't be of much use in the face of hailing projectiles.

Shino was not fast enough to react when he saw the flurry of shuriken flying towards him at incredible speed. Although he couldn't dodge all of them now, he could at least protect any critical areas such as his face and head.

The batch of spinning blades found themselves embedded on the boy's abdomen, arms and legs and one nicking his ear. An audible grunt was heard as Shino winced in pain when blood began to fall on every part where Shino's skin was pierced.

Then, he could hear the sound of metal being dragged on the floor. He looked and saw Sasuke coming at him. Sword held in a reverse grip, his expression turned into a cold and wordless fury. No emotion was present, only the desire to kill.

Just as Sasuke made the final step, everything around them slowed to a near halt. Shino could only watch as the sword of Kusanagi was coming close to his neck.

"Gojumahojin: Mikagura! (Five Layered Magic Circle: Holy Song)"

Five runic circles appeared above the two as Sasuke stared up, the light of each circle entering his vision as he squinted, enough of a distraction for Sai to swoop in and grab Shino by his mid-section on an ink bird.

As the spell took effect, Sasuke could feel his body give in from the injuries he had sustained earlier. Once more, he willed himself to activate his Mangekyou Sharingan, the red six pointed star came to life as he stared at the sky. The lingering pain of Shino's jutsu made him flinch as he held in his right hand, the sword of Kusanagi.

Susanoo once more appeared, now prepared to meet whatever attack was coming head on. Sasuke, with his sword, stared down at his infected left arm and pointed the tip of Kusanagi on it.

Just before a blinding white light consumed Sasuke's position, the Uchiha could be seen stabbing his own arm before his Susanoo was consumed in cleansing light.

**BOOM!**

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

Dear merciful God in heaven was this chapter a tremendous pain in the ass to write. Not only was I suffering from terrible writer's block, I was basically experiencing for a month on what I would call a slump.

What it is, I'm still trying to find out. But I decided to update this since I was leaving this out for too long and that sooner or later I knew that I have to force myself to write.

As you can probably see, I've gotten such a terrible slump that I've had a lot of neglected factors in this though I think I've exploited the Sharingan's weakness in this fight too much.

For any of you who are looking for some Sasuke ownage, then I deeply apologize because I don't see it that way with the stacks heavily against Sasuke with the following weaknesses exploited from the Sharingan:

Point 1) Konoha Shinobi know a lot more about the Sharingan than any other group besides the Uchiha clan itself. They know that the Sharingan's greatest strength lies when an opponent enters within its eyesight. Anything that is outside the Sharingan's peripheral vision is considered a fatal blind spot.

Point 2) with the point above, and the terrain presented in the battle, forest warfare becomes a very important factor going to Yamato's group. Because the forest offers a lot of cover against the Sharingan's capability to lock on an opponent and predict their moves, again, what cannot be seen by the Sharingan is a fatal blind spot. In a forest, there is enough crap that will hinder Sasuke's vision in locking on his target.

Point 3) Along with using the forest as a cover, Yamato and the others exploited another weakness of the Sharingan by using numbers. That and they have information about Sasuke's abilities. That makes it a very important factor in battle.

Let's not forget with the group above, I've probably placed a team standing second only to Naruto's current team. Whereas Naruto/Kakashi/Gai has the possibility of breaking Susanoo, the only one with that much force in Neji's team is Chouji based on the recent manga chapters.

Now enough about that, I hope you all could give your opinions in why I found Sasuke's losing not really sound. Although I gave the hype about Sasuke's abilities, I still find him lacking especially if the stacks are so against him.

So with that, I hope you all leave a review.

RnR, people!


	6. Indomitable Mind, Unwavering Spirit

_Always be smarter than the people who hire you._

_-Lena Horne_

Chapter Six: Indomitable Mind, Unwavering Spirit

* * *

_Mishandling information can occur time to time when there is a bureaucratic department with so little staff and so many things to handle. It certainly did not help when routine brought forth complacency in an institution. It was a fine gateway to stagnation and eventually, decline._

_Shikamaru's mind was quick to notice an error if he ever saw one. As his father had once told him, 'When in doubt, doubt more.' Misinformation was a lethal error in their profession, any small mistake could potentially mean a life wasted or a war declared. It was why he had to make sure that if he was gathering intelligence, he would have to double check everything and review any contradicting statements or sentences that they come across._

_There was actually once an incident that occurred in during their genin days about a heavily misinformed mission to Wave Country. That would have been quite a scandal if it weren't for the fact that Kakashi's team arrived in the village alive and in one piece but not with some injuries here and there._

_He had heard from Ino, courtesy of Sakura, a couple of times of how Sasuke was placed in a deathlike state. That alone was enough to convince Shikamaru that the sorting people were being complacent in their work to screen and reject dubious mission requests._

_Ironically enough, it was in that botched up mission that Team Seven's infamy (Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura) would definitely begin. Naruto got a head start for having a bridge named after him._

"_In truth, I never would have assigned this mission__ to mages, but since the townsfolk kept pestering me about it, I guess I had no choice. But I warned them this would be the last time I would be giving a request. You could see the sorry state of my town and I don't like spending tax money on something so preposterous."_

_The man that sat before them was the mayor. Kiba, slightly wary of the situation as most of them were, took a good look at the fat employer for the job. The mayor was indeed rotund, along with that well groomed moustache that seemed to connect to his sideburns. The Inuzuka looked at the man and his slightly pompous attitude towards the mages._

_The Inuzuka scowled, sorry state of the town his foot. If any thing needs to be sorry for, it was the townsfolk that got ruled over by this fatass._

"_So what do you say? How about we __put this behind us? I'm willing to pay in full for bothering such strapping young mages like you people."_

_They all looked at each other, seemingly undecided if they should continue with the job request._

"_Well, this is quite a nice surprise. But to be honest we don't feel like leaving a job undone. Not good for business, I'm afraid. But we'll have a meeting to talk about it and decide what to do with it." Shikamaru, the unofficial spokesman and leader for this mission, answered. The robust mayor simply raised a visible eyebrow from his face but smiled as he stood up from his chair and said to them._

"_Very well, I'm awaiting your answer in a few hours, come back to my house when you've decided."_

_With that, the mayor had the group escorted out of the mayor's most extravagant looking mansion._

"_Well, now that it's come to this, what will it be, ladies and gentlemen?" Kiba asked, his scowl never leaving his face as they were outside. Although not visible, some of the others were not feeling all too pleased with such a lucky break._

_Tenten spoke up, "The mayor is definitely hiding something if he's insisting we take the money and leave. I would like to dig more into this if we could, but I don't think it's necessary that we do. Our priority right now is money and we need the money to set up a good search for our friends."_

_Erza raised an eyebrow at this, "What makes you think he's lying then? For all we know it really is just a bunch of children playing harmless pranks."_

_Shikamaru turned his gaze at Hinata who simply nodded._

"_I can tell that he was hiding something just from his body language, Erza-san. From the way he looked to his side when he was speaking about the house. He seemed cautious and nervous when Shikamaru asked for more information. He's adamant on us leaving this place."_

_As a wielder of the Byakugan, she was aware of every minor detail that came with her eyes. Granted she was not as gifted as her cousin, but her abilities were something that they would need most of the time._

"_Then we go with Tenten's option?" Ino had then asked, hopeful that it be so._

"_Not until we can confirm that something bad isn't really going on. If we leave things just like this, most likely Fairy Tail will get an awful reputation in this place if we left things alone and another guild comes in and takes the request." Lee had added. Erza and Gray flinched at that. Even if they were to deny the Mayor's request, Fairy Tail's reputation didn't exactly have a clean cut image in the public's eye, something these people obviously have no idea about, hopefully._

"_WHAT? That's bad! Then we have to deny the mayor's offer!" Natsu shouted._

"_Aye!" Happy clarified_

"_As much as I am curious about this whole situation, we can't just leave the offer standing. We desperately need the cash. We're flat out broke and we have to find the others before something happens." Sakura voiced her opinion on it as well._

_Another moment of contemplation hit them as they all looked on the ground, deciding on the best course of action._

"_Excuse me, but are you the mages the mayor hired for our request?"_

_The person had asked, they all turned around and saw a sickly looking man, who looked like he hadn't had a day of sleep for a long while. He ran to the closest person he could reach with his arms and kneeled in front of the person, his hands touching Natsu's lower legs and begged, sobbing as he did so._

"_P-Please, it's been over three weeks and I have yet to see my daughter! She and her friends went over to the haunted house when the rumors came about! We've been begging the mayor for DAYS with the other families but the mages that came only went away!"_

_Now that had brought something interesting out of the job! They all watched as the man was crying on the ground in front of them, shouting and begging for them to take the request. He was desperate. That much they could tell._

"_Leona, she's all that I have left! Please, I beg of you! Please save our children!"_

_Natsu, who had been looking quietly at the man for the last few minutes, could only frown as he watched the man grovel at his feet. His last clinch to hope was there before his eyes._

_Seeing the man who begged before him made memories of his past with his surrogate parent surface again. This man reminded him of that time when Igneel disappeared, except, it was the child that went missing._

_The others maybe couldn't understand something devastating as that, but he knew. He knew how much it was painful and it reminded him why he had to search for Igneel._

_He only knew one thing to do._

"_Erza, I want to do this mission." He said with much conviction in his voice that it literally stopped Erza's line of thought._

"_Natsu, it's not for you to decide…" Erza was about to remind him that this was Shikamaru's decision to make, not his, but the Dragon Slayer still insisted on it._

"_Even if you all decide to forget about it, I'm still going to do it. I want to take this job." He said, much calmer than before, but they could tell that Natsu was already at boiling point._

"_Natsu…" Happy looked concerned. He could tell that Natsu was angry, but the man before him who was crying prevented the dragon slayer from lashing out._

"_Natsu, we don't need you getting all pissed off right now. We're not here to get messy." Gray reminded him. Natsu simply glared at the Ice mage who then glared back._

_Shikamaru shook his head__ at this and looked over to Kiba and Sakura who looked back at him, waiting for his decision._

_The Nara sighed as he scratched the back of his head, "Fine, we'll do it. But make sure to let me do ALL the talking to the mayor. Ino, I need you to go with me just in case. Sakura, you'll be in charge with the rest in keeping them in line. I can trust that you do the same with Natsu and Gray, Erza?"_

_The redhead nodded and with that, Shikamaru went back inside the mansion._

* * *

Flashback end:

It had been easy to trick the mayor into saying that they'll take up on his offer. As an added incentive, Ino used a relatively minor Genjutsu in subtly distorting his hearing ability so that there would be little to no people keeping tabs on them.

By now, it was almost night time and still, they waited just by the outskirts of the small town, near enough the supposed haunted house.

There, they set up camp and Shikamaru began assigning duties to each and everyone in their group. Kiba, Hinata and Ino were assigned to do reconnaissance around the house's perimeter to take note of anything strange around it. Erza watched and was fascinated on how militaristic each of these people act when doing their jobs.

Shikamaru then assigned Lee and Tenten to be guards seeing as they are the most combat oriented members of the bunch while Sakura acted as Shikamaru's second in command.

She had never seen a group as organized at this, moving as one cohesive unit, a well oiled machine. Her respect for the pineapple head just grew as Shikamaru took command. The boy looked like he didn't even demand any respect yet, his friends still look at him as some sort of leader, and everyone except Shikamaru tends to think so.

She looked over at Gray, Happy and Natsu who were waiting with bored expressions about their current job. Indeed, the way they work can be slow, even she found it irritating. Erza always preferred the straight approach. It was quick, simple and clean cut. But to her dismay, Shikamaru wasn't like that. He wasn't one to invoke his luck and he preferred to move when he saw it was right to do so.

"You're unsurprisingly slow, Shikamaru-san." Erza simply commented while Shikamaru simply yawned and said, "Well, I'm careful about these things. It's in our protocol to do our jobs with as little bumps on the road as possible. It's why I gather intel first before we commence an attack."

Akamaru, who was left in the care of the squad for reasons that Kiba needed to remain inconspicuous, mimicked Shikamaru's action and lied down on the ground.

"In the battlefield, the key to a complete and flawless victory lies in information. 'Know yourself and your enemy, and you need not to fear and lose a hundred battles', a precept from what I take to heart. If I have all the necessary information that I need, then I can win." Shikamaru said as he looked at the small campfire that Natsu had made for them earlier.

Erza couldn't help but raise her respect once more to Shikamaru.

* * *

Era:

"Now that we've got permission and a license to do odd jobs, Kage is now officially active and taking on missions." Kakashi announced as he arrived at the café and sitting down with his small group.

Naruto, Gai and Anko all looked ecstatic at that as Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, the one eyed Jounin simply grabbed his paper and seal of approval as Naruto asked him, "That's awesome, Kakashi-sensei! What kind of test did you take to make them approve of the guild?"

"Oh, this and that, nothing I couldn't handle." Kakashi answered vaguely. Cheating wasn't exactly an art he had to neglect, after all.

Naruto scowled at Kakashi when the Jounin answered, the blonde hated being left out of the loop. Anko, meanwhile, laughed at it.

"Well, that's Kakashi for you, sparing everyone the details unless it's really important! So what's our first job?"

"Nothing as of now, we've just turned into an established guild and the magic council has yet to see some job offers for us. So for now, we'll need a base of operations to start our guild and locate our comrades."

As soon as Naruto heard that last statement, he perked up while Kakashi continued to explain, "We can't set up our guild here in Era. The Magic Council has made it clear that this is THEIR turf. So the next best choice is to establish our base in a town closest to this one."

Gai had raised an eyebrow at this, "And that would be?"

Kakashi had grabbed open a map that he had just purchased on his way towards the café. Kakashi then pointed to the town nearest Era.

"Onibus Town is pretty close from here and aside from that, there's an attraction there big enough that would keep the public's attention away from our group."

Anko looked at the map and read what the attraction could possibly be, "Theatre Act? How could a simple theatrical show have the attention of foreigners?"

"From what I've heard it's that the playwright is an eccentric fellow. He continues to hire people that have little to no acting experience at all and that his plays are generally unpredictable. Every show night it's practically a different story from the last."

Naruto scratched his head at this, "Well, that's a weird and interesting story. Now I get why the people would flock there, though."

"There's something else that's been bothering me though." Kakashi said and this time, his voice was serious. The trio leaned closer to Kakashi who then began to talk about a certain rumour flying around the streets.

"There's talk about several dark guilds getting destroyed with a lot of its members ending up dead or severely mutilated. What's worse than that is the trail that the culprit is leaving behind." Kakashi mentioned as they all got up, heading towards the station.

"The scene was covered heavily with black flames. Although I would like to keep my suspicions out of it, which is unlikely the case when I've heard that the flames couldn't be extinguished even with high level water spells. It's most likely Amaterasu."

To this, Naruto stopped. He scowled as he asked Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, are you telling me Sasuke is now targeting innocent people even though they had nothing to do with Konoha?"

Kakashi simply sighed at this, "I'm sorry, Naruto. But we're going to have to deal with him sooner or later."

Naruto stopped in his tracks as his hands were firmly placed in his pockets as he said to Kakashi, "Then I hope it becomes sooner. I don't want anyone else getting involved in this stupid fight."

Kakashi stopped. He noticed how much Naruto suddenly changed with this piece of news pertaining to his old teammate.

"Sasuke has gone way too far with this. I'll be sure to be the one who snaps him out of his attitude soon enough. I won't let him commit any more mistakes than this."

Perhaps, Naruto really was starting to grow up.

* * *

Seawood Forest:

If anyone was observing the forest, they would be astonished to find a large and devastated area deep in the woods. They would see Black Flames rising into the sky even though it was raining cats and dogs right now. They would see symmetrically shaped pillars of wood, approximately six, rising around a large area upright and in a circular formation. If they were to look even further, they would see the aftermath of a furious battle. The sudden explosion coming from the middle of the once lush scenery was all that Wendy saw in confusion when she was soaring above was pure destruction.

The sound of the rumbling thunder brought concern over to Charle as she said to Wendy, "The rain is getting worse. We'll have to land on safe ground and continue there on foot."

Wendy only gave a wordless nod. They landed just outside the battlefield. The smell of ash and brimstone wafted to her nose even though it was raining. Those black flames must be incredibly hot for it to let visible steam rise around it from where she was located.

When she looked at the very center of the battlefield, she saw Neji being carried by Sai by the boy's shoulders while Shizune was pulling out these strange weapons from Shino's person. She could see blood seeping out as Shizune continued to pull out each one carefully and cautiously while Shino was flinching every time she did so. He winced once in a while but Shino never once complained.

To her right, she saw Chouji, not as plump as before. In fact, she saw him quite thin, thinner than Sai and he was sitting down on the forest floor with his head down.

"No sign of Sasuke's body anywhere in sight. I would have liked to track him down, but with this much injured and incapacitated, I doubt we can find him. And Neji seems the worst off as well." Yamato informed the group.

"I-I'll be alright. A-Are we to assume that he is still alive?" Neji asked, drifting on the brink of unconsciousness because of the pain, his voice was coarse and weak. Yamato simply nodded.

"That's impossible. I've hit him with Mikagura dead on. He couldn't have escaped that." The man with whose face was hidden in blue robes suggested.

"That may very well be the case. Susanoo is a strong jutsu capable of offense and defense. It will be no wonder why he could have escaped." Yamato answered them as Shizune began healing Shino first.

"He couldn't possibly get far, though, with injuries sustained like that weighted with his exhaustion, handling Sasuke would be easy. We should go and finish the job." Chouji helpfully added.

Shizune shook her head at this, "Not when we have all of you are like this. We had the advantage in numbers and played with the terrain well. But Sasuke-san still has raw power going for him. He might have lost an arm, but his most powerful jutsu can still be available. That is if he still has the chakra to spare, we have no way of knowing especially to one such as him."

Shizune had finally managed to pull out the shuriken embedded on Shino's body. Although that nasty cut to right cheek would forever remain as a scar.

"I'm surprised help has come from an unknown source, would you mind telling me why you decided to join our fight, good sir?" Yamato questioned the man whose face was covered, he simply answered with a nod.

"It is rather personal. Cait Shelter is a place that I owe, especially the chief." He answered somewhat robotically. Yamato could tell that the man was uneasy with them as well. Who wouldn't? They had weapons strapped almost everywhere in their body that to any normal person looking at them, they would be terrified of the group.

"Ms. Shizune?"

That interrupted their current talk as a small girl peaked through behind the trees. Everyone took notice of the girl and they were shocked to find Wendy out here in these dangerous lands.

"Wendy, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at the village?" The medic asked. Her eyes were now more concerned than ever, Wendy looked at the ground with a small pang of guilt.

"I-I wanted to see if I could help out." She said, her voice quivering from her lack of self esteem.

The others simply looked down as Shizune spoke while shaking her head with a serious tone, "This is no place for a child, Wendy. The person we just faced is a very dangerous man. He's wanted in our village for crimes that we couldn't just ignore. You were lucky that he's not here anymore, otherwise we'd fear for the worst for you."

Wendy looked down now as well, finding herself that she was more of a burden in that battle than she thought.

"But I'm glad that you're safe. Let's get out of here then, some of my comrades need our attention."

At Shizune's words, it looked like Wendy's eyes lit up. She looked over to the older woman who was smiling at her and somehow, Wendy felt better about it.

She watched as Shizune closed Shino's wounds and attended to Neji who was asked by their medic, "Can you walk, Neji-kun?"

Neji shook his head, "I-I can't feel my legs."

That seemed to alarm Shizune as she immediately set out to diagnose Neji with her jutsu. Touching the boy's back, she could see the part where Neji crashed with on that tree stump.

"This is serious. Your spinal column is damaged, Neji. The nerves responsible for sending messages to your legs were the ones affected with your crash. I'm sorry, but it looks like this is a debilitating injury and it is highly possible that your career as a Shinobi has ended." Shizune's face looked sombre. Neji was simply closed his eyes and looked down as the gentle patter of the rain was the only sound that could be heard before the booming sound of thunder echoed to their ears.

Neji had never expected it would happen to him. If he were more careful and anticipated the strength of Susanoo's arrow earlier, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Nonetheless, the chance to one up the last of the Uchiha was just an opportunity too big to pass up. Perhaps it was his pride as a Hyuuga that caused his downfall, but somehow, he couldn't regret what he had done.

He and Chouji made Uchiha Sasuke look like a complete fool.

"I have a way to help him." Wendy spoke, for the first time since their arrival in the forest, her way of speaking told them of her confidence in her own abilities. Neji looked in curiosity as she stood before him and took a deep breath. The dragon slayer of the sky inhaled, gathering air as much as she can and gently touching Neji's abdomen. Shizune watched as her hands were still placed on Neji's back, she could feel the strange energy entering Neji and looked on in surprise. The nerves weren't just being repaired. They were being renewed, restored to its most optimal state! It wasn't discarding the damaged tissues and cells and basically giving a new one; she was resuscitating them into miraculous levels!

'_I see. Her abilities are more restorative rather than curative. I've never even encountered a jutsu like this. This is amazing! No wonder Yamato was able to get back to his feet. This could even surpass Tsunade-sama's Souzo Saisei (Genesis Rebirth)__! Wendy has vast potential with that ability of hers!'_

Neji twitched, a cooling sensation was entering his system, especially to his back, the throbbing pain that he was feeling, the numbness and the his sores were all slowly disappearing from his body as he felt a relieving sensation wash over him like a cool spring breeze.

And then like a wave of euphoria hitting him, Neji succumbed to his fatigue and fell asleep.

"We should discuss our next plan of action back at the village. The rain is getting worse by the minute and we have three unconscious team members." Yamato informed them as he looked upwards, thunder boomed and lightning crackled in the dark skies.

"What about the dark flames, Yamato-taichou?" Sai had asked and the former ANBU captain shrugged.

"There's nothing we could do about them unless you can use Fuukahoin (Fire Suppressor Seal). Even if you did, you're not in shape to do so. You've been maintaining your Choju Giga even before the battle." Shizune informed the former Root member as Sai looked down.

Their masked companion then asked them, "Why? I know that these flames can be resilient, but surely a powerful enough water spell can…"

Yamato cut off Mystogan while shaking his head grimly,

"That is where the Flames of Amaterasu differs, good sir. Those flames are inextinguishable. They cannot be put out by normal means. On record, the flames are said to last for seven days and nights before finally dispersing. So much as a person touches the smallest flickers would be consumed by the black fire. Water based spells do not work on them. It requires a special technique to snuff them out. Unfortunately, he none of us here have the appropriate knowledge in using the technique and the one qualified to use it is currently too exhausted as is most of the team."

To this, they all wordlessly returned to Cait Shelter, carrying the injured along the way.

* * *

With Shikamaru's Team:

Hinata scanned her surroundings with her near three-sixty degree vision under a Henge. Shikamaru had said to them that the reconnaissance team needed to work fast if they were to fool the mayor. They needed to notice something amiss about the whole house from an outside perspective first under a strictly limited time making their work that much more tedious and difficult. Shikamaru had said that they should give a report when it was past sundown.

Right now, it was close to night time and the sun gave off an orange glow as its bright light slowly descended on the horizon. Strangely enough (or not), the setting sun terribly reminded Hinata of the blonde jinchuuriki. Her thoughts were drifting to the boy of her affections. She couldn't help but be worried for him even though he was probably the strongest person she knew.

Naruto was the type of person that you could place your faith into, it was just the type of person he was. Yet, along with that trust, comes worry. For Naruto was reckless and his luck can depend on either extremely good or extremely bad, there was simply no middle ground that can be seen in him.

Hinata knew that, she probably knew that as much as the others. It was why she was so worried about him. Two months had passed and they still had no idea and no clue just where the others were and that only Sasuke had been rampaging around Fiore like the madman that he turned out to be.

"No luck at all, Hinata?" Ino asked, in her disguise as well as Hinata shook her head.

"I-I can tell that the house is empty but there are marks of people breaking in and entering more than once. There's several windows open by the eastern side and a door that looks like it was recently fixed." Said the Hyuuga heiress and on to her side, Kiba spoke with a frown. His nose was twitching due to picking up an unsavoury smell.

"I smell Alcohol. It's faint but its there. Now I know something IS going on here."

Ino shrugged, "I haven't had the chance to get something out as well. The villagers couldn't help since it's all they know. But there was something that got my attention, though."

"What?" Hinata asked, as Ino had her left hand on her chin, "They said that the house was formerly owned by the mayor's family. But then they moved out after the mayor's brother died. The deed and property hasn't been touched and everyone thinks that the mayor still owns it."

"Well, that certainly brings up an interesting topic, damn. That's all the leads we have right now. But that smell has me worried. I doubt kids would be bringing Sake for something like this." Kiba then looked at the crescent moon beyond the horizon as the day slowly gave way to the night.

"It's inconclusive. We're going to have to report to Shikamaru very soon and we need answers, now." Kiba said this as he looked at the abandoned house.

"So we're staking this out, huh?" Ino asked in exasperation at this as she looked on the ground. Hinata could only offer support for her friend.

"W-We can't help it Ino-san. We don't have anything substantial to report and we can't leave things as it is."

Ino could only sigh and relented to the fact that they would have to stay here longer than necessary.

As they prowled the area around the house for another hour, looking for anything that could give them a clue, Kiba stopped when a new scent entered his nose. He sniffed the air once more and noted that Hinata's scent remained in position, meaning that she had probably seen the person who had entered her range. Ino, however, was still on the move before she too stopped.

When he got to the place where the scent was most strong, he stayed perfectly hidden in the corner, he saw his current teammates all looking at the lanky man walk towards the haunted house with what sounded like an irritated rant about his colleague.

"My damn partner better be there when I arrive. If he doesn't, I'm going to kick that tardy little punk's ass." He swore while Ino, Kiba and Hinata all wordlessly followed the man as he entered the house through one of the broken windows by the eastern sector. The man looked around the house and his expression soured even further.

"What the hell? That damn punk isn't even here yet! How the hell are we supposed to deliver those Lacrima crystals before sunrise?"

The man then went to the round medium sized mirror hanging on the wall and touched it at the center. Kiba, Hinata and Ino quickly noticed that the mirror gave off a ripple like effect from where the man's palm was and runic lines began appearing above and below the mirror, forming resembling to a door before slowly opening for the man.

The three looked at each other and nodded.

"We'll have to step up Shikamaru's plan earlier than expected. Ino, it's all up to you." Kiba told his teammate while Ino nodded.

Ino formed a simple hand seal and extended her aim towards the man before she muttered, _"Ninpo: Shintenshin no Jutsu! (Ninja Art: Mind-Body Transfer Technique)"_

* * *

Onibus Town:

They arrived at Onibus Town at night time, without anything worthy to remember on the ride on the way to the town. That is if almost knocking over a long line of luggage from what looked like an aristocratic couple can be called uneventful, then the whole ride was met with no problems at all.

"I still don't see HOW you could not have seen that, Anko." Kakashi said, his eyes never leaving the book in his right hand as he flipped another page.

"To be fair, they were asking for it. That lady had the gall to call me indecent!" Anko shouted indignantly as Naruto was quick to point out, "Told you your outfit catches too much attention."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who wore an orange jumpsuit for most of his career." Anko retorted as Kakashi chuckled.

"She's got you there, Naruto."

Naruto simply hung his head low as they walked towards the nearest inn. It wasn't as if he got the attention that Anko got when he wore orange, besides, if he could hide well with that suit, then imagine his stealth abilities not wearing the suit!

When they finally arrived at the inn, all four of them settled down and began looking for a place to eat. Kakashi all advised them to keep a low profile and avoid using any flashy Ninjutsu while they were in town to not attract any attention. That is not to say that letting Anko and Gai have their way would be better, but even they knew how to control themselves.

"Even though we're in town, I expect you to be careful, especially you, Naruto. You're always a magnet for trouble." Kakashi had warned him. Several times in fact. The blonde could only look indignant for a few seconds but seemed to accept it nonetheless with his like being like it is.

Now he was walking around town, trying to find a place that served some decent food for once, like ramen. He had enough of the garbage that Anko force fed them for awhile.

His pondering came to a halt as he saw a man sailing in the air in a perfect arc before landing just to the other side of the road. Naruto stopped and his eyes were already looking at the battered looking thug that was sent flying.

"Figures that you bunch of cocksuckers are all talk and no bite."

A figure soon exited the building, wearing very sexy leather attire that showed off all of her curves perfectly. Long flowing silver hair cascaded to her back as she stood from the entrance of the establishment, a toothpick was in her mouth as she had her right hand holding her curvaceous lips.

Rather than being attracted, however, Naruto's mind was racing a million miles a second. It suddenly felt like Kakashi's words were ringing true to his ears.

"Nee-chan, isn't that a bit too much? You just beat up half of the establishment's customers." Another person came out, and this time it was a hulking of a man. He stood, much taller than his sister and much more toned as well. Silver haired, as spiky as Kakashi was, but his face was much more rigid and his skin was much tanner.

"Bah, they were probably part of this guy's sorry group. They wouldn't even stop ogling me." To this, Mirajane shuddered. Somehow, she felt dirty.

"You punched an old man." Elfman immediately reminded with a sigh. Sometimes her sister could be so overbearing. By the looks of it, the man was some sort of high ranking official. Master Makarov wasn't going to like that.

"Really? Huh, I guess I was in a blind rage then."

"You bitch! Just you wait! Aniki would make you feel sorry you ever messed with us!" One of the men shouted running back from the scene. Naruto watched as the man disappeared from his view and turned back to the obviously dangerous specimen of the opposite sex staring daggers back at him.

"What are you doing just standing there? Are you one of these cocksuckers too?" She asked him, her voice felt like it was dripping with a lot of bloodlust against the blonde. Naruto simply raised his hands in defense, trying to avoid a fight a much as possible.

"Woah there, I was just looking for a place to eat when I saw that guy…" The blonde then pointed to the man sprawled on the ground just opposite to the woman and her sibling before he continued, "… Soaring over my head and landing there. You got the wrong idea, lady."

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say, now come on, put up your dukes. I'm not wasting anymore time here than I need to. My soup is getting cold and my little sister is all alone back home."

'_Sheesh, the siblings who put up with her must be buddhas or something.'_ Naruto thought as he felt uncomfortable while Elfman apologized to him, "My sister is just frustrated from our last mission, I apologize for her behavior."

Naruto simply chose to ignore any of their statement as his stomach gave a low but loud growl, indicating his hunger. The blonde groaned as he held his stomach.

"Ah, why can't I just get a break today? I'm so hungry and someone I don't know wants to pick a fight with me. I really do attract all sorts of trouble!"

"Hey, bitch!" A voice shouted, all three conscious and coherent people (Mirajane, Elfman and Naruto) turned around and saw a large man, probably as large as Elfman or perhaps even larger, stood in front of them. The man's arms as he glared at the trio, a look that clearly indicated his anger was there and for the whole world to see.

"You did this to my subordinates?" He asked, looking down on Mirajane that didn't seem intimidated at all at the man's height.

"Yeah, so what are you going to do about it?" She asked defiantly with a wicked grin, the man's left eye twitched as he stared down at the girl. But now looking at the girl, she didn't look half bad. Plus she had some spunk in her, he liked girls like that. He didn't want any weak women as partners. That would be too much to take care of.

"You got some modesty there, you bitch. Maybe if you become my woman then I'll spare you for all the trouble that you caused my men."

Mira simply gave the man a middle finger salute as her evil grin never left her face, "Up yours, jackass. Propositioning me into a relationship really sends me the message. You're compensating for something, aren't you?"

Naruto looked like he was about to laugh but soon tried to hide the fact that what Mira said continued piss off the big man in front of the two. He wouldn't want to be in the middle of a street fight just because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Oh, I am so going to enjoy bang… " The man said as he approached the two, but never got to finish his sentence when Mirajane had punched him in the face.

Hard.

The leader was sent flying to the crowd of behind the leader's back and they all scrambled to catch him. The man got up, clutching his bent nose in agony as he shouted, "Get them! Beat that bitch's group up and kill them!"

Now that wasn't good, he better get out of the leader's sight before that moron notices…

"And get that blonde asshole as well! He's probably one of them! I saw him giggling!" Too late, he noticed.

"Why do I have to get involve in this?" Naruto shouted as the thugs all ran towards him with clenched fists. The girl and his brother charged right through the enemy lines as they left Naruto all by himself.

'_And now they left me all alone to fend for myself!'_ Naruto thought in a panic as he ducked from a punch. To him, this guy's punch was way too slow. Naruto then saw a vulnerable area of the man and exploited that newly exposed abdomen with an uppercut.

The force of the punch was enough to knock the wind out of him and his feet adding more force when Naruto extended it sending the thug flying away from him. Naruto was quick to turn around, his battle instincts kicking in as he saw a fist passing by and getting it caught within his hands. Naruto pulled the man with his left hand reeling the man closer and punched the man with his free arm. He then jumped, pumping a little amount on his legs propelling him farther as the men gave chase to him.

Naruto cursed as he turned back to face them. They wouldn't leave him alone! He jumped once more this time in the opposite direction, he just had to face them head on and disable or knock them out one by one without any form of Ninjutsu.

"Fuck! Why the hell do I get the worst kind of luck every damn time?" Naruto shouted as he landed on a man and gave him an arm bar, forcing the man to lose balance and fall on the ground as Naruto twisted his arm earning a loud crack.

The man winced as Naruto was quick to get up, five more were after him as Naruto swivelled all around them like scurrying fox, too fast for them to react to.

"What the hell is this guy? He's moves too fast!" One of the men shouted, unfortunately for him, he was the first to grab the blonde's attention and immediately received two punches from the gut, forcing the man to bend down and then a kick to the face sending him crashing to a nearby alley. Naruto then turned around going after another one with sweeping kick. The targeted man jumped, seeing what Naruto had done and grinned. He immediately grabbed a knife from his pocket and lunged at Naruto with bloodlust filling his very being. Naruto smoothly turned around evading the stab and gripped the man left arm once more and elbowed the extended arm that had the knife. The thug's hand reacted and let go of the knife as it hung limply while the thug shouted in pain. Naruto, still holding the arm, turned around once more and threw the man to the ground with an overhead toss and punching his lights out when he crashed.

He then dashed towards the remaining three thugs who were growing scared by the second. As time passed, they were slowly noticing that they have yet to hit the blonde bastard that broke two arms and put another out of commission. They all looked at each other and dashed at the blonde who was running at them in full speed.

"I'm finishing this now!" Naruto said this as he went past the three in a blur, as Naruto slid on the ground and turning to the men whose backs were exposed to the blonde ninja. Naruto grinned, a sadistic, maniacal, evil grin. A grin he hadn't used in a long time. A grin that symbolized that something devious was being concocted in his mind.

"Gentlemen, welcome to the world of pain." Naruto then held his hands together to form a tiger seal as he ran at them full speed, subtly activating Shunshin and screamed at the top of his lungs,

"Konoha hi-den Taijutsu Ougi: SENNEN GOROSHI (Leaf Hidden Taijutsu Finisher: One Thousand Years of Pain)!"

Only the sound of three screaming voices could only be heard all throughout the town that night.

Back at the siblings, they stood over bodies of beat up men as Mira held the leader by the collar of his shirt.

"P-Please let me go! I won't threaten you or anyone else in town anymore!" He whimpered, Mira however, was looking more and more pissed as the man grovelled before him.

"Let you go? LET YOU GO? YOU RUINED MY OUTFIT, ASSHOLE!" With that, Mira punched the man on the face once more, this time, taking a few teeth out of the man's mouth in the process.

"Nee-chan that should be enough, you already made your point." Elfman chastised, as Mira kept decking the man to anywhere she wanted.

"Not until this creep pays for repairing my clothes!" Mira shouted, she didn't look like she was about to stop.

"Ah, Onee-chan, look at his hands! He's handing over the money! You can stop now!" Elfman shouted and true to his word, the tug was already handing her the money as he shook his head, muttering, "No more! No more!"

All of that weren't understood however, as he had a swollen lip and a few teeth missing thus, he couldn't speak properly.

Mira then grabbed the man's cash and pocketed it with her punching arm. She then unceremoniously let the man go and watch him crumple to the ground in a heap.

"There you are! I've got a bone to pick with you!"

The siblings turned their heads as the blonde from earlier was pointing at them.

Mira looked at him with a disinterested gaze, "What's eating you?"

Naruto tilted his head on the side as if wondering how the hell this woman forgot about what happened earlier before shouting, "You tried to pick a fight with me and then you left me to fight his group of clowns! I don't know why this bunch of idiots mistook me as one of your own, but I demand some sort of reward after this!"

Mira was about to reply when she saw Elfman was running towards her with a terrified look on his face, she turned around and saw the man she was beating up earlier had a knife already past halfway in stabbing her to her chest. She couldn't react in time to block or dodge the blow. She closed her eyes, thinking about her only remaining family, Elfman still had no control over his take over magic and Lisanna was frail and too gentle, her regret soon became apparent when she thought about the people in Fairy Tail, how she would miss them, how it was even fun to have an argument with Erza. She thought she had seen her whole life flash before her eyes and she was looking at the knife as it was mere inches from her skin when Mirajane saw a blur of yellow and blue running in front of her and sending the man flying away.

Elfman couldn't believe what he was seeing! He just saw the blonde, who was farther away from her, move to his sister's side in just a blink of an eye! There was no magical energy he felt or circle he saw to cast a spell so it meant that the blonde in front of them got there by pure physical speed!

"Take that, you sorry excuse of a man!" The blonde shouted as the man sailed to the other side of the road.

Mira could hear her heartbeat suddenly beat faster as her knees buckled and fell down. She was close too close to death on that one, she had been on jobs that brought her closer and closer to death's door, but this one was far, far too close that she could have ever gone.

A hand extended towards her, signalling her that someone was trying to help her up. She looked up and saw the blonde, hand extended and worry written on his face. But Mira wasn't concerned about that, for she had been staring at a face that she could tell was the most handsome man she had ever come across, according to her eyes. Slowly, her cheeks turned to a rosy color as the blonde helped her up. It was the first time that she was left speechless by someone.

"I guess that bastard deserves more of my frustration than you did. Are you okay?" He asked as he looked at the girl who was standing there and could only wordlessly nod.

It was then that Naruto's stomach growled once more and the blonde crumpled in a heap. He was so hungry that he felt his legs were jelly. He cried rivers of tears and muttered how he felt like he was going to die when Mira began to ask him, "I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, t-t-treat you to f-f-food for t-t-thanks…"

"Huh? I couldn't understand anything that you said. Speak up!" Naruto said as he leaned in closer while Mira's blush grew more prominent.

Elfman watched the interaction and once more that night, the impossible happened.

"Come on, I'm not that scary, am I? What were you saying earlier?"

Mira-nee was lovestruck.

* * *

With Shikamaru and Company:

"Ino went ahead with the plan, Shikamaru. Right now she's inside whatever there is in there. But judging how Hinata's Byakugan couldn't detect that entrance, I'd say we're in for something big." Kiba mentioned as he sat down, and petted Akamaru's head that was carrying Ino's body.

Shikamaru nodded at this and asked Kiba and Hinata, "You gave her some of your equipment, right?"

"We gave her most of our explosive notes and she said she's going to gather intel. It would be a while before she comes back."

Shikamaru nodded once more and he asked, "So what have you found out as of now?"

"The house was and possibly still is under the name and title of the current mayor. That and the guy that Ino took over said something about delivering Lacrima to somewhere." Kiba mentioned as Shikamaru sat down on the ground and began to think.

"Under the mayor's name, eh? Well now, that certainly confirms his involvement in this job. Looks like we all confirmed our suspicions with that act he just pulled."

Shikamaru watched as Natsu began poking the unconscious Ino as Tenten reminded him of the girl's ability.

Shikamaru's mind began running ideas in his head as he contemplated on his next step. Erza looked curiously at Shikamaru as he glanced at the group around him.

"Kiba, get everyone geared up and ready. We'll most likely strike by midnight."

The strategist then turned to Erza, Natsu and Gray, "Can you three lend us your strength this time?"

Natsu answered with a wicked smile as Erza nodded.

"Natsu is pumped!" Happy commented as Natsu answered, "Hell yeah, I'm pumped! Let's go do this!"

"Natsu, the raid won't be for another three hours. Calm down and I'll explain how we'll do things from here." Shikamaru advised and Natsu seemed deflated at that statement as Shikamaru began assigning the positions.

"For Team One: Kiba, you'll be taking point. Our job is to rescue and extract any unfortunate prisoners that they have and your nose will be invaluable in avoiding tight spots and getting away from any hostiles that will be in that place. Next to Kiba will be a support close range fighter, so that will be Lee, followed by a me in the middle to give out commands and issuing mid range support. Tenten, you'll be in the rear and give us cover as the long range specialist. We'll get an idea where to invade when Ino gets here. For Team Two, Hinata will take point because of her Byakugan. Natsu, you'll be second while Sakura takes the middle as the captain in command, Erza and Gray, you'll be behind Sakura respectively. We'll be doing the rescue mission while Sakura's team does the heavy work."

"Heavy work?" Gray asked as the Chuunin looked at the night sky.

"Your team will handle in going for a direct assault. You take their attention away from us while we rescue the children."

Natsu then raised his hand in question, "How are we going to do that?"

Sakura simply grinned at this as she wore her gloves flexing her fingers with it and saying to the dragon slayer, "By doing what we do best."

"Aye! Natsu is a real destructive machine! We'll destroy everything flat!" Happy shouted as Natsu high fived the flying cat.

Shikamaru Erza merely gave a smile as she closed her eyes, taking a short rest before they went with this job.

"Now you'll see how we really work, Erza." Shikamaru said as he turned his sights back to the town.

With Ino:

Ino looked around the hall, surprised that something this big underneath the town even existed! She had been walking around; trying to look inconspicuous despite the man she was currently possessing. Her eyes peeked from side to side as she made her way toward at the right fork, stealthily placing an explosive note to small areas that she judged would cause enough chain reaction if worst came to worst. She stopped when she heard two people speaking from the other door.

"I heard the boss received another group of money grubbing mages today."

That was a funny story, actually. The only person in this town expecting mages was the mayor. They had already known that the fat city official was involved, but they didn't know the extent of his influence here.

The other voice sounded mildly interested, "Really? What? Isn't that the third time this week? From what guild did those guys come from?"

So word has gotten here already. She knew how gossip travelled fast, and now she had just heard that the mayor had been running the entire operation underneath the town's noses like this.

"Fairy Tail and they didn't look like a bunch of amateurs either. The one that was speaking to the boss looked like a real smart one too. He'd been looking at the boss as if he was reading him carefully. Seemed close to disagreeing with the boss too until he answered that they'll take the money."

"Heh, idiots, I don't know about them but if a guild stubborn enough to discover we've been pilfering Lacrima and selling to the dark guilds, then we'd be in a heap of trouble."

"That would be stupid. Multiple guilds will be under surveillance at best, but the magic council will try to maintain order. At the very least the boss will shut this down for a few months and then we'll get back to it again and at worst, he'll be deposed but the factory will still be running. Something like being discovered wouldn't intimidate the boss because he's got it covered."

'_That's what you think.'_ Ino thought as she placed another explosive note just near the hinge of the door. She watched as the piece of paper was slowly melding with the gray wall as she walked away. A voice at her back shouting at her, "You won't get away with this!"

Ino merely scoffed at the man's threats as she said, "Right now, your body is my hostage. Whatever you do, you won't make a difference. Under the realm of the mind, it becomes my territory. I already learned some of your speech patterns and scanned through your memories earlier. Rest assured I won't be discovered, but once I dispel this technique, however, your memories of meeting me and invading your conscience would be erased."

Ino continued strolling around the giant compound, her eyes scanned meticulously per room to look for any children taken hostage and planting bombs left and right. It would take Ino another hour for Ino to have finally found the imprisoned children all huddled up in a corner of a makeshift jail, looking worse for wear and their eyes baggy enough that their faces almost drooped.

Ino wordlessly nodded at this as she went out and placed the last of her bombs just under the chair before dispelling the technique and the man crumpled on the floor as if the strings of the puppet were cut.

These people would not realize it soon enough that they would be stricken by these ninjas as swift as a lightning bolt.

* * *

Seawood Forest:

It wasn't hard in trying to spread out throughout the country when they were first created. All of them decided that the fastest and safest way to get around the country was by train. They didn't exactly ride the actual thing itself, but they followed the tracks that lead to other cities or settlements. He knew for a fact that many of them would first look for civilization rather than staying outside in the forest. It was for both protocol and common sense, after all.

By the time they were at a town, a clone would dispel to update both the legions of blondes and their creator to have an idea of how far they were and to update them if any of his friends were seen at the town or settlement. So far, he has had no leads and they were dwindling by the day.

He stopped when he reached a small village very deep into the forest, he could see small huts and tents erected to the ground and torches to serve as light. He looked to his right, another of his clone nodded as he jumped away to stay hidden.

He looked around and began asking some of the locals there. Thankfully, they could understand him and they seem to have an idea what he was talking about.

"Well, there is a group that is currently staying here that says that they were sent here without them knowing how. But you wouldn't believe that story, it was too farfetched to be true, still though, they are a well behaved bunch."

"Can you tell me where they are?" He asked, the villager pointed to his right and answered, "They're on a hut just to the edge of town. You've got to be careful though. Three of them were injured after coming home from what looked like a serious fight. So they're probably a bit high strung."

When he arrived by the house, he was going to knock when he heard a familiar voice spoke.

"Well that certainly decides where we will be in our next destination."

Naruto stopped; his right hand was just mere centimetres away from the knob when he heard that voice.

"Should we trust his word, though? We have no reason to trust him and what he's given."

"There is no reason not to trust him either. For all we know, they really are there and then we'll have an idea to get in touch with the others much easier."

The clone soon burst into the room with a smile on his face, "You guys have an idea where the others are?"

Everyone looked at the clone as if they were ready to jump at him at a second's notice. Then he noticed that Shino was bandaged all around and Chouji looked thinner from when he had last seen his friend. They all looked tired and battle weary from what he could tell. That didn't mean their senses were dulled however, as Shizune, Yamato and Sai were dangerously close into grabbing any weapon and throwing them at the unsuspecting blonde.

"NARUTO!" All of the conscious people around the small house shouted as Naruto had burst in with a grin on his face signifying that he had indeed got good news for their group.

"I've heard you guys that you have news on the others! That's great! Where are they? I can send the rest of the remaining clones to where you're all going to save time!"

He then looked at Yamato and grinned while giving the man a thumb up, "Yamato-taichou! Welcome back to the world of the living!"

Yamato chuckled idly and said, "Glad to be back, Naruto."

"Who's on your group, Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked and Naruto scratched the back of his head, "There's Kakashi-sensei, Super Fuzzy brows-sensei and the crazy snake lady from the Chuunin exam so that makes four of us."

"Just how did you get here, Naruto?" Neji asked as Naruto, who was currently sitting down on a chair, Naruto barely missed the bandages on the Hyuuga's arm and chest.

"I've been at it for several days already; most of us could already feel the real one's mental fatigue. I don't think we can keep this up for a few more days."

"Oh, so where exactly are the others now?" Sai asked.

"Hang on. I'll let one of the clones ask." A plume of smoke appeared outside as the Naruto clone in front of them stood there for a few seconds and then finally responded, "We're currently in Onibus Town. Right now we're staying at a local inn while we try and find some place to establish as a base of operations. We need more people if we want to do what Kakashi-sensei is planning."

Now this got Yamato tilting his head out of curiosity, "For what?"

"It will be too long for me to explain. It's best if Kakashi-sensei himself tells you."

"Now that confirms two places where we have a priority to go, Onibus Town and Magnolia, the question is, where should we go?"

Now they came at a crossroads. Should they meet up with Kakashi and retrieve the remaining members of their group? Or pick up the rest of the team before going to Onibus town? Since Magnolia and Onibus Town were at the opposite end of each other from where they are, they had to make the decision. Just like Naruto said, Kakashi needed them for whatever he was planning and most likely, it involved for a way to go home. The sooner as it began, the sooner they can go home.

"Naruto-kun, we'll have a talk first to decide what we'll do. In the meantime, please dispel and to tell the rest of your army to dispel themselves. You need your rest."

The clone merely nodded but before dispelling, he asked the group that were currently awake, "Who exactly did you fight that you wounded up like this?"

Yamato looked at Shizune, who looked back, seeing a mutual agreement had been reached, the former ANBU captain answered the clone, "We fought Uchiha Sasuke several miles from this settlement. The problem was we couldn't find him after we received help from an unknown source. He has escaped us no doubt."

The clone's expression turned to a frown and nodded before dispelling.

"Now that we know where the remaining members are, where should we go?" Neji asked, Shizune then raised her hand to a decision, "It may be ill advised, but I propose we split up. Kakashi-san and the others will probably be in need of assistance and your abilities would be suited best for it, Yamato-san while I go after the remaining team members."

Yamato sighed at this and said in a dull voice, "Instant infrastructure extraordinaire. I figured as much."

"Then who should we go with whom to Magnolia and Onibus Town?" Neji asked.

"I would like to see my teammates in Magnolia." A voice had interrupted them in the form of Shino, who was slowly getting up from his makeshift stretcher.

"It would be irresponsible of me to leave them there with Naruto now making contact with us. I'll go to Magnolia to make sure that they will be okay when we go to Onibus Town." The Aburame continued with his monotone speech. As Sai was the next to answer, "I will be going with Yamato-taichou for this one. Kakashi-taichou needs all the help he can get and we don't need to delay what he has in plan any further if we want to go home sooner."

Neji then gave his answer, "Then I'm with Sai on this one. The sooner we can establish a plan action, the better our chances to go home sooner."

"Then that leaves me going with Shino to Magnolia." Chouji answered, feeling a whole lot lighter than what he used to be.

"I need to see if the others are there and they need to know where Naruto and the others are waiting."

"Then I'll be the one that will be accompanying Shino-kun and Chouji-kun to Magnolia that makes three persons per destination. We'll go to our designated routes two days from now. By then, we should all rest up and gather as much needed material needed for travelling."

The medic wondered, she had been concerned of Sakura ever since they got here, she thought about her fellow apprentice who was now a temporary member of a guild. She sighed, what were the others doing right now?

* * *

With Shikamaru:

Shikamaru watched in anticipation over to the other side of the house and seeing Sakura's team doing their preparations. Ino had already given him enough information to verify the mayor's involvement in the case of disappearances, it turns out that the whole things had something much worse underneath.

With a signal to Ino, Shikamaru watched and soon, explosion after thunderous explosion shook the ground below as it began.

**BOOM!**

**BOOM!**

**BOOM!**

**BOOM!**

The mission had begun.

To be continued…

* * *

Well, here it is, pacing slows down but I thought it was necessary. I've been dealing with stuff IRL and had little time to write. It becomes even more taxing that I have to do it in the middle of my slump. I know, I know, its evil of me to leave the story with the remaining team's job but yes, more action shall be put on the center for next chapter, I promise.

Next up, there's a matter of upgrading most of the side characters as the story progresses. Someone asked me if they would be learning magic, and my definite answer is yes but to a limited extent. I don't plan on making them learn abilities that wouldn't benefit their fighting styles. For example, I wouldn't want Lee, who relies on his speed and close range, to learn magic for something that would hinder his speed and contradict to his entire fighting style like say, exquip.

Now with that out of the way, Read and Review!


	7. Terror of the Night

Crossing the River Gates

_Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others._

-Winston Churchill

* * *

Chapter Seven: Terror of the Night

**BOOM!**

**BOOM!**

**BOOM!**

The explosions resounded. It shook the foundation of the structure below and of the town above. The denizens were violently rocked from their slumber as they heard something that felt like a giant was stomping the whole town.

"Wow. Those things are loud. What's the purpose of the explosions?" Grey asked as Sakura mentioned, "It's to confuse and to considerably reduce any resistance we might face. Even though we're doing the heavy lifting, it doesn't mean that they can't make our job easier."

Natsu looked disapprovingly at that, "What? But that's boring! I don't want to do things the easy way! I want to fight every single last one of them!"

"Natsu is bloodthirsty!" Happy commented and he earned looks from everyone around him with a bead of sweat at the back of their heads.

Sakura shook her head at this, "That's not in the plan, Natsu; we'll be there to deal some heavy damage, but enough damage to leave behind evidence."

"I see. So you want to corner the mayor with evidence and accounts coming from the people involved while crippling whatever it is down there." Erza seemed to nod at this.

Sakura nodded at this as she smiled dangerously, "That and we're making a statement."

Sakura looked over at Hinata who pointed to one area, her Byakugan now focusing on the ground below now that they knew the trick. Sakura flexed her fingers as she adjusted her black gloves and stood over to the ground that Hinata was pointing at.

"And what is that statement?" Grey asked, somehow, seeing the pink haired girl grinning at him reminded him of Natsu.

"We won't be duped with a low class thug." Sakura mentioned as she reeled her right arm backed and pumped so much chakra in it that they could see it was visible enough as it surrounded Sakura's fist before punching the ground with all her might and releasing the energy at the moment of impact that the ground around them shattered.

Grey didn't hear Hinata's command to jump until they fell almost immediately to the facility below. He was still too surprised about what the pink haired girl just did when they descended below.

With Shikamaru's team:

At the start of the mission, Ino had configured the entrance below as they dashed. While many of them would be focused on either the explosions or Sakura, they would be the ones dealing with the rescue mission. Ino had already told him where the prisoners were, and they were determined to take them back as quickly as possible before getting Erza and the others out of the area.

And ran they did, Ino kept telling them the direction that they took as Kiba warned them of any incoming hostiles. They moved as fast and as silent as possible.

"Two scents coming to my left, fifty meters and closing." Kiba warned them as Tenten grabbed four shuriken per hand in fluid motion and jumped to the ceiling, and stuck herself there with her chakra. Over to Shikamaru's front, Lee sped up and overtook Kiba as they ran into the narrow hallway. Lee noticed the fork at the left and jumped into the opposite wall.

"Dynamic Entry!"

"HEY! WHAT THE F-AHH!"

"HOLMES! YOU BASTARD, YOU'RE GOING TO PA-HURK!"

Whatever statement that the other person was about to say was cut short as a hail of shuriken flew towards the person and pinning him to the wall. Lee then aimed for a quick punch on the man's face knocking said man out before continuing to follow Ino's instructions.

"There's another hallway to the left. After that is a fork, we'll go right. From there, there would be a large area that looks like a central hub; we'll take the three o'clock hallway from there."

Shikamaru nodded as his mind began processing things for another assessment.

The whole thing had been smooth sailing at the start of the mission. There was very little resistance from what he could tell. Although he didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, he wasn't willing to gamble with it.

"Ino, go set off the second set of detonators." Shikamaru commanded and Ino followed through as another series of explosions soon began its terrorizing spree underground.

* * *

With Sakura's group:

"Wow, Shikamaru wants this one to be a clean sweep." Sakura said in astonishment before decking another person in the face courtesy of her fist. Grey flinched and watched as he remembered Sakura pounding a ten meter hole on the ground earlier.

"How are these mooks still alive when you punched them? You could crush their skulls with that kind of power!" Grey shouted as Sakura ducked from an obvious horizontal slice before countering with a straight punch to the chin, planting the man's face to the undamaged ceiling upwards.

"Karyu no Hoko (Fire Dragon's Roar)!"

A stream of flame left Natsu's mouth as it raged forth against all that stood before him. Natsu's affinity to wanton destruction wasn't left unchecked, as Sakura helpfully reminded the fellow pink haired mage, "Natsu, easy on the rampage."

"YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Natsu mentioned defiantly with his maniacal grin.

"Natsu-san, it's really important to have some restraint and…" Hinata wanted Natsu to calm down before he does something that he would either regret or put him in a hospital. But before she could finish her warning, Sakura had appeared in front of Natsu with a body flicker and decked the poor dragon slayer that sent him rocketing to several layers of thick concrete.

"SHANNARO!" Sakura had shouted as Natsu fell into a heap of debris leaving him quite battered.

"Remind to never get on your bad side, Sakura." Grey had commented and backed away immediately when the pink haired ninja glared back at him.

"Yeah, it would be good for my health overall."

"Grey, focus." Another person that sent chills down his spine commanded as the ice mage turned around and managed to smash the face of one more thug as Erza flew over him with her Heaven's Wheel Armor equipped. Erza's normal Heart Kreuz armor was replaced with an armor that was modelled after the graceful Valkyries. Four long silver wing like objects was on her back, the feathers were blades that were as sharp as the swords in her hands stretched majestically for the entire world to see. Her lower extremities were covered by a thin metal waist band that held her skirt all the way down but just above her ankles. Her top was the only thing covered, with a literal metal breastplate and a flower like design over it.

On her head were the same wing designs on her back, looking like a wreath.

"Blumenblatt." By her command, multiple swords were already spreading out and impaling faceless thugs left and right. Somehow, Grey felt that his magic wouldn't be needed that much.

"Move your ass, Grey!" Sakura shouted and the ice mage felt compelled to obey Sakura at that time.

Great, he was stuck with two scary women that were clearing the competition before he could make another move. Well at least Hinata wasn't as scary as the other two.

Hinata delivered another palm strike to her opponent flipping the man over and delivering another strike to the abdomen. The man convulsed and screamed in pure agony before he fell limp from Hinata's move.

Grey shuddered at this as he began transmuting magical energy to his element, all the while muttering, "Make that three."

* * *

With Shikamaru's group:

They had finally made it into the hub, and all Kiba could say was that it was big. As in venue-of-the-final-test-of-the-chuunin-exam big. He couldn't believe that something this big slipped past the radars of the townspeople. Looking around as the person being on point, he was seeing the large, egg like crystal that was placed in the middle of the central hub as they went to the hallway leading to the prisoners. As his nose was picking up any hostiles all the way inn, he couldn't shake the feeling that shit was still about to hit the fan.

Then, they finally saw the extent of the damages of the bombs that Ino planted everywhere. Debris, dust, grime and unconscious men littered the ground as clouds of smoke became visible. Nearing to a corner, Ino told them to turn over there and Kiba made a sharp turn, Akamaru following suit. It was then that his nose was invaded with something putrid.

It smelled a lot like blood and torn flesh with a mix of gastric acid and bile. Worried, Kiba suggested, "Guys, we should pick up pace, something is behind us and I don't like that smell."

"Something we should be concerned about?" Shikamaru asked and Kiba nodded before adding, "Yeah and I don't like that scent. It smells like a particularly vicious animal."

It was then that Kiba realized, even if minutely, the scent was getting stronger by the second.

"And it's gaining in on us!" Kiba shouted as he began picking up his pace. The others soon followed triggering their Shunshin no Jutsu, or in this case, Lee picking up greater speed while Tenten dropped caltrops from behind.

"Are we close to the stockroom?" Shikamaru asked as he planted another explosive tag when they turned to another corner.

"Not much farther! Turn to the right on the last intersection!" Ino answered and turn they did, they were met with a dead end but Lee smashed the doorway with a straight flying kick.

When they entered the premises, they had to stop and check their surroundings, seeing the multiple crates lying around. They had to breathe a little easier. They were finally in the stockroom.

Ino looked around, her eyes darting left to right and she finally saw the black iron bars that served as a cage. Looking closer, she saw three children huddled together at the far end of the makeshift cell.

"Shikamaru, I found the kids!" Ino exclaimed as Shikamaru began planting bombs by the doorway left and right.

"Tell them to stand back! We're getting them out of here!" Tenten shouted, unsealing a Katana from her scroll and running towards where Ino was.

Another explosion was heard from outside the hallway as Kiba shouted, "Hurry up! It's getting closer!"

"You're telling me that the traps we set behind aren't stopping that thing?" Shikamaru asked incredulously to Kiba as the fanged boy replied, "No shit! The traps we set can't even slow him down!"

Shikamaru looked over to Ino who was settling the children on Akamaru's back. The children all looked pensive at first until Akamaru barked loudly and lightly jumped before wagging his tail.

"Ino, is there anyway we can get away from here without encountering whatever's after us?" Shikamaru asked and the girl recalled the memories she obtained from her victim earlier and then pointed to the wall on the right from the doorway. Kiba was quick too act and began spinning like drill as he smashed to the wall.

"Tsuuga (Piercing Fang)!"

Kiba sailed through the air and pierced the designated wall as he pushed his way through the concrete and earth.

When he got to the opposite wall, he looked back with a reassuring smile only to be met with an Akamaru who was running as fast as he could with the three children on his back. He ducked when Akamaru sailed past him and he heard another set of explosions triggered. He suddenly realized that the sound was too loud and too close to where they were right now.

'_Oh no…'_ He paled at the thought. He jumped back to the room and what he saw made him shiver down to the core.

Standing before him, in tattered clothes and ruffled hair of gold, was what a man was supposed to be, but looked like he was bred with spikes. Spikes protruded from its back to what acted like an exoskeleton to his spine, his shoulder blades had the most intimidating form acting like horns of a rampaging bull and tusks just to the sides of his of his mouth that seemed to shrink compared to the sharp row of teeth that the creature bared before them. Its posture was that closer to a gargoyle and its body was lean. When it walked, it walked on all fours, showing the dangerously sharp and long set of claws on its now scaly arms.

"What the hell is this thing? Didn't you see anything like this?" Kiba asked Ino, the girl shook her head solemnly but never taking her eyes of their supposed opponent.

"I've never seen it when I infiltrated." Ino shouted and the monster gave an amused snicker, its white eyes telling squinting in mirth.

"_**You won't have a chance to!" **_It said as it began circling around the quintet.

"_**You fuckers got a lot of nerve coming here. I guess not all of you mages are money grubbing idiots**_._**"**_ It continued. It stopped for a while as it opened its mouth, its saliva falling from its mouth and hitting the ground as an obvious hissing sound became present. It took a deep breath and exhaled, as a green form of gas escaped its mouth.

It was then that Kiba's scent picked up, it wasn't noticeable but from what the monster's mouth was giving off, it smelt dangerously close to that of human blood. He didn't want to know what kind of reason this person had that he was smelling of human flesh and blood differing from his own, but he just had to ask.

"You. For some reason, I can smell human blood coming out of your mouth, that isn't to say that it is your blood in it. What did you do?"

The monster gave a chuckle as he crouched as low as he can and looked ready to pounce,_** "I couldn't understand what kind of magic went into me when I used that Lacrima. That is until I started craving for something. At first I tried a lot of conventional meat. It didn't work. I was still starving, but when I picked up the scent of blood coming from one of my co-workers body, I found it extremely enticing."**_

The man chuckled darkly at this as it slowly approached the quintet and his eyes glowed for a moment.

"_**I killed him and I tasted his flesh and let me tell you, the difference between conventional meat and that kind was that it brought more… Nutrients in my body faster than a regular one."**_

Sicko.

This man was a psycho! How Ino could not have finished the job, they'll never know. But for this man to turn to cannibalism and use it as a form of strength? And to one of his own comrades as well? This man was going to pay.

The five Konoha Shinobi all looked at the man with scowls on their faces. Lee was the first to talk to them, "For a man to stoop this low just to attain power, I feel my anger raging like a storm that I fear that I can't quell it with mere words."

Lee grabbed his training weights and let them fall unceremoniously to the ground as it created a small set of craters from each.

"As a student of the person who has taught me the value of my comrades, your actions insult me and the teachings that my Sensei has given me!"

Kiba walked over to Lee's side and clasped his hands together for a seal, he went on all fours as his fangs and claws grew, making him feral in appearance. Lee was right. It was a bit insulting for them.

"A bastard like you deserves more than just a beating. We won't let someone like you go away scot free this time." Kiba warned, as his Shikyaku no Jutsu took full effect.

Without a moment's hesitation, Lee took the first step to run and go after the creature. It as surprised by the sudden speed that Lee had went in. The green clad boy was already in mid swing of his leg, reaching out fully to the creature that was surprised at how Lee had moved, closing the gap with not much as a second.

"Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Whirlwind)." Lee's voice was not one to mask his anger at the man. To Lee, this was the kind of scum that belonged into the deep recesses of hell and god forbid, that was what he was going to do!

**SLAM****!**

Lee's right leg connected to his chin as he was sent flying and crashing to the opposite room, but Lee didn't stop there, he charged through the smoke hoping for another attack, and hoping to have staggered the said monster until it reached out its claw towards Lee. Lee stopped, he leaned back as the claw tried to reach him, almost ready to draw blood and impale his forehead. It was mere centimetres away with the tip barely touching his forehead.

But what caught his attention, was the black arm with a red orb just by the wrist. Lee jumped back as the monster erupted from the smoke, all clad in black and jumping at Lee who was surprised by the sudden speed increase coming from the monster.

Lee backpedalled as quickly as he can, swerving left and right as the monster gave chase to him. A barrage of kunai coming from the ceiling stopped the monster as it got between him and the bowl cut boy. With a quick follow up, Tenten ignited the exploding tags attached to the kunai sending the monster flying.

It didn't stop there, as next, a spinning human sized drill made its presence known and collided with the monster straight at the chest. By now, the black coating from the monster receded as Kiba kept spinning and spinning before pushing it back.

The monster slammed onto the wall as Kiba jumped from his attack and landed back safely with Shikamaru's group. Kiba flinched however, when he noticed a stinging pain coming from his left hand. He looked down and saw a long but shallow cut on his left arm as it bled slowly from the monster's cut.

"_**Was that supposed to stop me?"**_The monster asked it showed its menacing grin before them. The monster licked his claw that had a small amount of Kiba's blood in it and instantly, they could see some of the damage slowly disappearing.

"_**Such a thing doesn't work on me! As long as I can draw your blood, I can recover from any injury! I am invincible, now come and feel my 'Rage'!"**_ The monster shouted as he turned black once more and his wrists were once more surrounded with luminescent red orbs.

The monster pounced immediately and its immediate target was Ino. It had sprung itself at speeds that she didn't have an idea of coming from the man, the abomination sailed through midair. His target was caught off guard and under the influence of this black coating; he would remain immune from any spell and would relatively be strong enough to withstand physical blows.

He was about to land on the blonde girl when something large, spiky and metallic collided with his body as he was sent flinging back into the hallway.

Landing on her feet, Tenten twirled the seemingly unwieldy tetsubo before throwing it straight at the monster with all her weight.

By now, Shikamaru was already concocting a plan and began pulling out equipment after equipment from his pouch. This thing had the confidence to face all of them head on, and Kiba managed to deal of what was supposed to be a lethal blow or at least incapacitating. Yet it stood there unscathed. Something about that black coating made it almost impervious, but from what he could tell, that ability either had limited time to use or that there was a limit to how much it can take.

As soon as Tenten threw that metal club, he began throwing kunai after kunai tied with explosive notes. The projectiles ignited one after another as it hit their enemy dead on.

Quickly acting, Shikamaru pulled out his ninja wire extending it with a powerful tension. He looked over to Ino who was now quickly weaving handseals why their enemy was busy. The monster emerged from the smoke and flames, damaged and bleeding but otherwise still very much alive. The monster staggered for a few seconds before it approached them with utter contempt.

'_So there's a limit in how much damage that the coating can take. That means we have to dole out__ with high damaging moves and instantly move in for the kill.'_ His gaze turned from Ino to Kiba, to Tenten and then to Lee.

'_Ino doesn't have a jutsu powerful enough to pierce that type of coating if we're going by__ with Kiba's Piercing Fang. Tenten has one weapon in her arsenal that can stagger him, but it's too high risk. My jutsu is useless in this time so that leaves Lee.'_

Shikamaru then asked Tenten, "How many swings can you do with the Bashosen (Banana Palm Fan) until you're tired?"

Tenten planted another set of traps just right in front of their opponent and cautiously, it began to stalk around them with contempt and hunger in its eyes.

"Three times, why?"

Shikamaru nodded at this, if they can pull this off with the next attack, the battle would be over.

* * *

At the same time with Natsu's team:

The wave of cannon fodder slowly trickled as they all lay neatly on the pile of rubble to which all five of them stood on top. All of them looked relatively unscathed except for Natsu who was just recently punched through five layers of three inches of concrete.

"Ugh… I thought I was going to die over there." Natsu said with his voice was then filled with dread to what he just experienced from his fellow pink haired teammate.

And he thought Erza was scary? Sakura could be just as bad!

"Natsu, your brain didn't turn to mush, right?" Happy asked while Natsu looked thoughtfully at that, "No, I don't think so."

"Given of what just happened to you, I wouldn't be surprised if Sakura did." Grey mentioned and he shuddered one more time.

"Hah, you got scared to, ya' damn bastard!"

Grey looked like his pride was hurt because of that statement, but who wouldn't be scared of a girl with a short temper having more than enough strength to permanently cripple an elephant? Only an idiot wouldn't be afraid of Sakura and that title was currently in Natsu's possession!

"Like you aren't?" Grey asked earning a scowl from Natsu though he couldn't exactly disagree.

It was then that a lone clap brought the attention, it was followed by another and then another. A figure stepped out of the darkness, complexion as white as alabaster and a build of a muscular man, torn and tattered clothing covered his chest and acted as his loin cloth while the ones on his forearm looked like battle worn gauntlets. The nail on his hands and feet were pitch black and sharp. Eyes flickering with a small purple flame and horns growing forward but slightly bending to the back, he grinned and a small but sharp fang showed from his mouth. But what was the most attention grabbing feature was the leather bat like wings protruding from his back. It was long and reached all the way to his upper leg and folded nicely.

Erza was quietly glaring at the man, her eyes never darting away from the man's position.

"_**Your display of dominance is quite an amusement, if I must say. The people you beat up may not be mages, but they were still plentiful, to be able to take most of them down**__** while escaping unscathed…" **_To this, he turned to Natsu, who looked like he had gone through the deepest bowels of hell and corrected himself, _**"Well relatively unscathed, anyway, speaks highly of your skills as mages."**_

The man then adjusted the makeshift gauntlets in his hand as he grinned while he spoke, _**"Compared to these people, I'm different. What you can do against them won't work against me. After consuming that unstable Lacrima, this form is now a testament to my power. I am your judge, your executioner, the embodiment of your nightmares, and your primal fear. You can never hope to live in this moment. For in the night, I am king, I am the ruler of darkness, I am…"**_

He was suddenly cut off when a chakra empowered fist made its way known to his right cheek sending him careening to the opposite side of the destroyed room and going through that thick layer of concrete.

"You talk too much, you creep. Whatever type of Lacrima you consumed, it's not going to help you when we kick your ass!" Sakura shouted, obviously getting impatient from the fact that Shikamaru and the others were taking their sweet time in doing their part of the mission. That and the man rubbed her the wrong way.

Their winged enemy got up, stumbling from the pile of debris as pain coursed through his cheek where the pink haired girl punched him and an excruciating headache as he ran through a concrete wall or two headfirst.

"_**What the hell, man? I was delivering a monologue! You don't just interrupt someone when they do a dramatic flare, it's just destroys the entire premise! Geez and that was an impromptu speech as well! You're never going to hear something like that from me again!"**_ The man shouted and complained while blaming Sakura for his predicament.

"You… Haven't been in a fight, have you?" Sakura asked and the man shook his head, _**"No, but I've read a few novels!"**_

Erza was pinching the bridge of her nose at this revelation all the while shaking her head at the realization.

"That means he's ripe for the picking!" Natsu said, his face showing a grin that portrayed an emotion of a hyena that had just smelled fresh blood.

"_**Hey, I'll have you know that consuming Lacrima to give you magic has a lot of perks! But the effects can be random if it's unstable, though."**_

Grey raised an eyebrow at this, "And what exactly are those perks?"

The man began to think for a few seconds and then replied offhandedly, _**"Oh nothing too special. I get a nice boost in speed during the night and I can specifically do this!"**_

An orb of pure dark energy swirled around Grey as its caster shouted, _**"Destruction Void!"**_

In an instant, the said orb of pitch black contracted and shrunk to about the size of a ping pong ball before exploding energy violently all around.

Sakura and the rest looked in surprise as they saw the area in where Grey stood was consumed by the black orb.

Their current opponent had a triumphant look on his face as he stood far from his opponents. The smoke cleared and he saw the Ice mage made a barrier of ice to protect himself from the earlier blast.

"_**Crap. I was hoping I'd be able to get o**__**ne of with that. Oh well, not like you can keep up with me anyways."**_

He took a step and then another, and then another. Soon, his pace increased and he was now running. His hands glowed in purple miasmic energy as did his feet, with his wings stretched. He started to run at a surprising pace.

"Natsu, Grey, stand back! This man isn't something you can keep up in!" Erza shouted and soon shifted armor from her Heaven's Wheel Armor to her Flight armor, leopard breastplate, cat ears, tail and all.

Grey noted that if Kiba were here, he'd be whooping in joy. Sometimes, Kiba can lay it on a little thick.

But now was not the time to remember about his current teammates as the abomination that ran as fast as a stallion gained in on him at a speed he knew he wouldn't be able to produce, Natsu was already lunging at the opponent disregarding Erza's earlier command as fire already gathered around his right hand and cocked back for a punch. Within Natsu's reach, the man quickly sidestepped as Natsu directed his fist forward. Feeling no resistance and putting his entire weight into that blow, Natsu lost balance and stumbled forward as he was shoved by his back with a powerful kick sending him crashing to the rubble that was made from Sakura's punch.

Behind him, Erza appeared, a long Naginata was within her hands already in mid swing downwards. The man simply leaped forward, cleanly dodging the attack and sending another orb of black energy at Erza who sidestepped and discarded her Naginata in favor of a straight double-edged sword.

Black miasmic energy escaped from the man's bat like wings, and grasped soon enveloped Erza in a dark cloud. Erza stumbled down to the ground hard. The magical properties of her armor were seemingly removed.

She looked in surprise to the person standing before him who was giving a mocking sneer.

"_**I just disabled your armour's attribute!" **_He taunted the red haired mage all the while preparing to stomp her face with his foot.

Just as he was about to do so, six vectors of ice made itself known to him and he dodged every single one of them while backpedalling.

It was then that Sakura and Hinata had appeared on to each his side in a pincer move. He managed to get away, but the two kunoichi kept up with him at his current pace. He decided to up the ante when he began to increase his pace to see if they could keep up. To his surprise, both of them were close and were within arm's reach.

"_**No fair! You have the same speed too! I can't win like that!"**_

"That's the idea." Sakura retorted, and immediately, Hinata had outstretched her palm towards him and was suddenly pushed away by the force of something he couldn't see.

He stumbled and rolled on the dirt laden ground as he slammed against the pile of rubble.

He recovered quickly as Sakura was quick to capitalize on his situation when she had appeared right in front of him with her fist already close to pulverizing him to dust.

He ducked, and narrowly avoided getting his head squashed like grape, unfortunately, one of his horns weren't as lucky and it ended up shattering from Sakura's brute strength.

Behind him, the punch landed on the pile with his horn with it, as it shattered and crumbled from Sakura's punch.

He looked up in shock, surprise and fear as Sakura retracted her arm back and proceeded to give a straight kick direct to his gut. The assailant took this as a warning sign to get the hell out of dodge and did just that. Unfortunately for him, Sakura's eyes were already on him while Hinata was already above him with her palms wide open for direct blow to his face.

He ducked as Hinata touched the ground and flipped while Sakura was quick to cover the transition with a dash as their opponent stepped back.

"_**This sucks! Why can't I ever do an attack?"**_

Hinata was the one to answer him, "It is the point of pressuring you to a corner."

"_**Come on, you're being discourteous to me! At least give me a fighting chance!"**_

"You read way too many novels then." Sakura concluded and the man, seeing as there was no point in staying in there lest he wanted to die, he man who absorbed an unstable Lacrima ran for his life as Sakura and Hinata gave chase.

The horned abomination raised its hands above his head to smash Sakura on to the pavement when the girl stopped him by his elbow with one arm. Surprised, he did not see the oncoming fist colliding straight to his gut, followed by Hinata who had pumped chakra to her hands and striking the man's abdomen twice. The man staggered back as the two Kunoichi approached her with an impending sense of danger lurking from his person every time they took a step. Between the cold and discerning gaze of the pink haired kunoichi and the intimidating stare of the Byakugan coming from her side, he couldn't help but realize just how big a problem he had put himself in. So instead of facing them head on, he had to make for a retreat. Facing them would be stupid on his part right about now and he wasn't too fond of the boss biting his head of from the job if he failed. Either he whittled them down one by one or he's the one that will be pushing up daisies. So instead of fighting them head on like what he had wanted, he would have to get smart and run away.

So run away, he did. He turned tail and ran from the two ninja. But given his injury, his self proclaimed speed boost wouldn't be a factor for the remainder of the battle as Sakura and Hinata were now preventing him to run and to let him do whatever form of tactic he was thinking about.

The three mages watched in awe as the two kunoichi was keeping up with their enemy's pace and seemingly no looking winded as hey did so. They ran around the room, Hinata and Sakura clashing with their opponent giving the man neither an opportunity to counter nor an idea to do any magic. Whenever he was about to do a spell, Hinata was forcing her way with a palm strike to disrupt him, when he was about to do a physical attack, Sakura was sure to smash the ground near him to put him off balance. Erza, Grey and Natsu all watched as Sakura's timing and Hinata's precision attacks kept their enemy from doing anything short of running away.

Not just that, whenever their enemy could shift and lure Sakura with surprise attacks since taking the pink haired girl head on was close to suicide, Hinata would be there to cover her back. She knew how to respond to the situation. And when their opponent went for Hinata, the blue haired girl would only gracefully dodge the blow even if he went for a back attack. It was like Hinata had eyes on the back of her head giving Sakura enough time to get close to him and pound him to the ground.

This level of synergy that went between the two girls simply amazed the mages. They worked so well that their enemy, for all the advantages he had, simply could not touch either one of them.

"_**Normally, I'd be thrilled by having women chase after me, but this?"**_ The man questioned as he ran, his heaving was now becoming present as Sakura and Hinata gained in on him. He turned around, back pedalling while holding his abdomen with his right hand. Staggering as he did so. It was then that he finally noticed. Sakura and Hinata weren't just behind him anymore. They had circled him from behind the moment he turned around and were now prepared to deal the finishing blow.

Time seemed to slow down, as both Kunoichi got close within arms reach. Sakura had her hand glowing with blue energy, aiming another punch to the ground as Hinata closed her fingers except for her middle and index fingers as she jumped and rolled in mid air.

In the kind of impending doom that he was about to experience, he only had one thing to say before indescribable amounts of pain conquered every inch of his body.

"_**Crap."**_

The base of operation that turned into a battlefield was now reduced to nothing more but a quarry.

**BOOM!**

* * *

With Shikamaru's team:

All or nothing.

That was what Shikamaru thought right now. He said to Erza earlier that he didn't want to gamble if he could help it. But this was just one of those things he had to make a choice, damn the consequences. The creature they were facing was sentient, meaning it can think. Talking to them was reason enough to not doubt that indeed, this monster can think.

But smart? No.

Facing them all head on was not smart. All of the advantages and strengths that this guy had was a mere speck in front of him, just mere factors that he had to work against. And unfortunately for this poor sap, Shikamaru can and will find answers. It's just a matter of when.

Shikamaru's first order, have Tenten stall the beast with her Bashosen. Just one shot would be enough for Lee to do his part of the countermeasure.

"Bashosen: Kaminari no Ranbu! (Banana Palm Fan: Wild Dance of the Lightning)"

Lightning surged and crackled as Tenten swung the fan downward and the bolts of plasma struck the ground in a zigzag pattern straight to her target. As soon as she let out her attack, she sealed her weapon once more. She could feel the tiring pull from the weapon itself.

Curse the sage of six paths for having weapons with ridiculous requirements!

Quickly coating himself with that black sheet of what he could tell as armor, the human turned monster braced himself as the pillars of lightning charged at him and left multiple holes on the floor at its wake. Like a cornered animal, instead of looking for more paths to escape, he merely charged head on, confident in his armor to withstand the magic the other girl used on him. With a crooked smile, he sprinted on all fours as he withstood bolt after bolt, tearing off portions of his black armor.

"Hachimon Tonkou, Dai Ichimon Kaimon, Kai (Eight Gates Opening, First Gate, Opening Gate, Release)"

Wind began to pick up. They could feel the restraints from their friend loosening. Like a damn slowly opening its pumps, gradually filling up a river, slowly gushing forth the water causing a slow rise.

"Kyumon: Kai! (Healing Gate: Open)"

It was then that Lee began to move, the streaks following the streaks of lightning as he began releasing the next limiter in his body.

"Seimon: Kai! (Life Gate: Open)"

Lee's complexion soon changed from tan to red due to the increase of blood flow throughout his body. He skidded as he neared his target carving his sandals to the floor. The ground beneath his feet crumbled as Lee jumped disappearing from the monster's view.

Surprise was the only thing it could have felt when Lee suddenly appeared by his side, elbowing directly to his left cheek and once more becoming a blur from his position and reappearing once more on his opponent's right side. Locking the green clad Shinobi's right arm with his foe's adjacent arm, he muttered,

"You cannot beat my youth! Shomon: Kai! (Pain Gate: Open)"

Lee then slammed the poor victim on the floor as the ground beneath turned into a crater and Lee's target bounced up just from the force of Lee's throw. The bowl cut teen then gave a thunderous kick straight at the person's chin sending him flying straight upwards while Lee wasn't done yet, opening up one more gate, he cried out as he jumped,

"Tomon: Kai! (Limit Gate: Open)"

Lee then appeared as nothing more than a green comet in mid air at that moment, as his speed and power exponentially increased and his hair rising up from the updraft of the force that the latent chakra stored in him outwardly exploded into an intensity most of them had long since felt.

**BAM!**

**BAM!  
**

**BAM!**

The loud and seemingly improbable strikes to their opponent of punches and kicks echoed around that room as they continued they began to prepare for another set of traps if Lee couldn't deliver just in case.

**BAM!**

**BAM!**

**BAM!**

Go the sound of Lee's fists and legs hitting the man in mid air as the armor like black coating had finally shattered from giving way to the creature that lay inside, seeing his chance, Lee had capitalized it in an instant, unfurling the bandages in his hands and as if it had obeyed the will of its wielder, it wrapped itself at his foe by his left arm while his right remained free.

"**Your mettle is no match against mine! Ura Renge! **(Reverse Lotus)**"**

He reeled his left arm back, and in response, so did his opponent. The disfigured face of what was formerly a man finally met the eyes of his enemy, the eyes of pure determination and will of iron, like a gateway to the boy's soul, he had realized, far too late, that he was never a match against them to begin with.

Then, Lee let out a mighty roar and punched the creature directly at the abdomen with the force of a one ton sledgehammer, earning a much more thunderous roar as both of them fell harshly on the ground before a resounding explosion took place.

The fierce wind, feeling as much as a storm spread out dust and debris everywhere as Tenten, Shikamaru, Kiba and Ino braced themselves while seeing Lee jump from ground zero.

Lee landed beside the quartet, the strain of opening the gates affected him, but not as much as it used to. Back then, opening up all five gates and push past his limits strained his body so much that he couldn't move. But now, not so much, constant training of his body made his muscles and bones that much more durable than back then. He can still feel the after effects of using such a strenuous jutsu, but his improvements have been noticeable now.

The smoke cleared, and they could now see the after effects of the battle that occurred as they looked around them. Potholes, craters, rock, dust, grime and burn marks. The results of a battle had shown its head and in the middle of the largest crater, a man lied in a broken heap. Form finally receded, he lay broken and battered. He was motionless but still breathing.

Shikamaru approached cautiously at the man, kunai in hand just in case he tried something. When he was just a step away, the man's eyes, bloody and an eyelid swollen turned to Shikamaru who was staring down at him.

"After all that you're still alive, eh? Goes to show you how strong magic is in this world." Shikamaru mused. Somehow, this new form of fighting interested him greatly. The existing styles, the great potential shown in this new expression of fighting was bringing countless ideas into his head. Maybe when they return he can ask the old guild master about the fundamentals of magic. Of course, that would mean risking some information being leaked to the old man, but Shikamaru knew how to get around that.

"W-What are you…?"

He was cut off when Shikamaru spoke, "Sorry, you're not allowed to know who we really are. Let's just say we're young start ups from Fairy Tail. Oh, before I forget, I only have one thing to say."

Shikamaru grabbed a cigarette and put it in his mouth and lit it up. The nicotine entered his lungs before exhaling the gray smog out of his mouth. The fallen victim was about to ask but Shikamaru cut him off once more, "Your boss is next."

With that, he succumbed to the darkness.

* * *

The Mayor's Mansion:

It was two in the morning and the mayor was in a frantic mood as he began packing his suitcase. His family were already putting clothes in bags moments earlier when they heard that explosion. Someone had seen through every possible deception he had set up!

It was either someone had snooped in deeper into his business or someone was stupid enough for their tongue to slip about his dealings.

When he gets his hands on his remaining subordinates there was going to be hell to pay! But first, he had to wash his hands clean off of any involvement concerning that underground facility.

It was then that the lights were suddenly cut. Darkness instantly took over. Suddenly, a voice so eerily familiar spoke abruptly that the mayor had to jump up in surprise and if he could, grasp the ceiling with his nails.

"Hello, Mayor."

He turned around, he saw no one nor could he think that anyone was inside his room.

"Don't bother. I'm not in any part of your room where you would think I am." It spoke as if he could see him. The mayor was now sweating bullets and looked around once more with panicked eyes.

"W-Who are you?" He asked, the voice simply replied.

"No one you should know."

"Are you the mage I spoke to earlier?" He asked, he was now on his bed, crawling backwards and hiding under the sheets thinking it would make this person go away.

"That depends on what you perceive. Of course, I could say the same to you." It said with a hint of amusement was laced in its voice.

"What are you talking about?" He asked as he was cowering beneath his thin white blanket over his king sized bed.

"Come now, you must be kidding me. That small little underground facility underneath the supposed 'haunted house', don't tell me that you don't know anything about it."

The man vehemently denied that allegation as he shouted, "I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

The voice then spoke with a chuckle, "That haunted house is still entitled to your name, right? That means that property couldn't have been tampered with by anyone other than you and your family."

"O-Of course not! That house is now government property, meaning it belongs to the public! There's no way I would have any involvement in that! If I wanted to, I would have had that place demolished and built something useful like a park!" He stammered as he unfurled the blanket revealing his pudgy face.

"That just makes it much easier, doesn't it?" The voice asked and the mayor was silenced.

"As a public official, you'd have a say on where to build structures all around town, there would be bills to pay to you and they need your permission to do that. If someone was interested in that piece of land, you would have rejected and offered somewhere else. Being the mayor gives you the power to say no to prospective businessmen in using your town for commercial gain, specifically that house. You could do anything with it, like you said. So you allowed illegal work to take place underground in obtaining and selling Lacrima to the dark guilds. That coincidental rumor about a certain poltergeist was never your intention, it just happened and it was the perfect chance for people to lay off that property that you never sold."

"I deny those accusations! Those are baseless and you have no proof! Show yourself so that I may report you to the proper authorities!" He had finally shouted, there was no way this person would be able to figure it out that much unless he had the proper documents!

It was then that the person finally appeared in front of him, in the form of that lazy looking pineapple head that had the droopy eyes. He was sure that he had driven him and his group away! Was he deceived?

"Unfortunately for you, I had one of my friends search over your office and look over at the auditing. We had the name of the street, the house number and even the official description down to the letter, and we had never seen that property of yours ever being sold to anyone."

The man was beginning to hyperventilate in front of him, "Y-You have no way of linking me to any of the accusations about that illegal activity! I might have been deceived as well and there might be someone running the place!"

As he spoke, the rotund mayor reached for the sword he always had by the side of his bed. It never hurts to be prepared for anything and this was as a good time as any.

"That would have been the case if it were not for one of your subordinates we captured. I have one friend in my group that can probe memories and even project those memories to someone she touches. That and some of your goons sang a lot." Shikamaru spoke with a grin. By this time, the lights went back up.

By this time, the mayor was not looking amused at Shikamaru's statements. In fact he was downright livid. But he had to remain calm. This boy was smart, smarter than he had expected. But he would never be able to see what was coming next.

The mayor, instead of looking shocked and angry, merely put on an off putting smile. Shikamaru had a brow raised up.

"Quite the astute young lad, you are."

He said and took a deep breath before continuing, "I always hated brats that snoop around other people's business like you."

By this time he was kneeling on his bed, his sword was already in his grip. His smile then turned wicked as he shouted, "It's just too bad that you're just too smart for your own good!"

He lunged at his prey, with his sword drawn as he pointed its tip towards Shikamaru. His adrenalin was pumping as his thoughts were racing a million miles a minute. That was, until he noticed his body freezing in one spot all of a sudden. There was nothing that was making him stop. He looked down and saw a black substance extending from him up to the boy that was standing before him.

"Unfortunately for you, I'm smart enough that I would like my head where my shoulders are. And another thing."

Shikamaru turned his head around, the mayor mimicked his movement directly at his window. He saw countless small orbs of light and the voices of multiple crowds preparing to riot.

"Thanks for your confession. Oh, and it's a pleasure doing business with you."

The mayor was flabbergasted at that as he only had one thing to ask the pineapple head.

"What?"

Up above the mansion and standing on its four corners perfectly erect and straight, Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten all had their hands focused in the seal of the ram, as they spoke out the name of the technique they just used,

"Utsusemi no Jutsu (Voice Projection Skill)."

* * *

Cait Shelter, specified day of departure:

They all stood by the front gate, all wearing their gear with their backs turned from the denizens of the small village. Up front, Chief Robaul was saying his goodbyes and farewells to the foreigners of their land while Wendy was at his side, trying to hold back tears.

Charle didn't look amused at that.

"Well, it has been a pleasure for you to be here, all of you. It turned out to be a wonderful two months and I feel the need to thank you for what you did the other day."

Yamato looked sheepish at this but he smiled nonetheless, "It is our pleasure to be of service, Chief Robaul. We should be the ones thanking you for your hospitality and letting us stay here."

"Nonsense, you've done us all a favor in defending this tiny little guild that we call home. And speaking of favors, might I ask you for one more?"

Chief Robaul then turned to Wendy and told her to go to her hut and grabbed her things for an important job, Charle followed soon after as she obeyed, although Wendy didn't look like she wanted to take the job at all at the moment.

"Was it necessary to send Wendy away, Chief Robaul?" Shizune asked in concern while the old man could only give a nod.

"I have something important to tell you that concerns both Wendy and our guild. But what I ask is that you keep it a secret from her until the time is right." Said the old chief, he looked at each of these people with a stern gaze as he closed his eyes and began talking about something very important that the child didn't need to know for now.

A few minutes later, Chouji was the one to react first, "H-How is that possible?"

Neji could only close his eyes and nod in understanding, "I see, so that's why you wanted us to know. Is it to help you once more in a time of need as well?"

"Chief Robaul, are you sure? Even though you were entrusted with her, still, this is the place that she grew up on." Shizune wanted to be sure and she wanted Wendy to stay safe. Compared to the lives of these quaint villagers, theirs were much, much more dangerous. Madara was still possibly out there and to a lesser extent, Sasuke.

"I never would have realized…" Shino muttered this out but kept it close.

Chief Robaul nodded solemnly, "It is for the best."

When Wendy came back, her own gear was ready as was Charle's. She rushed up to the entrance of her small village to say her goodbyes and to see her new friends off one last time.

"Ms. Shizune! I want to say goodbye before you all go and tell you how I grew close being with you and your friends even if it was just two months before I…" She was cut off from saying anything else when the Chief gently pushed her forward towards their group. She looked back, and saw the old chief smiling at him as was the rest of the villagers.

Charle looked surprised at what the old chief just said.

"Go with them, Wendy."

She looked to her front and she saw most of them were smiling at her as well. Chief Robaul then added, "You have shown your courage to step forward, courage to spread your wings, and courage to mean what you say."

The chief stepped forward and hugged her close, "You have become so precious to me that I see you as my granddaughter. But all younglings will eventually leave their nest and venture off into the world. Now it is time to maintain that courage and learn of life outside ours. Go with them, see what they see, hear what they hear and feel what they feel. Learn from them and their journeys for they have lessons that even I can't teach you."

Wendy was now crying as the old man pushed her away, only to be met with another hug, this time, it came from Shizune.

"Now go. Before this old man's resolve breaks and he cries as well."

For the longest time, Charle could no help but to let a drop of tear fall from her eye as she watched the scene.

"Chief Robaul, I'm asking you one last time, are you sure about this?"

The chief could only nod with a smile while tears threatened to escape his eyes as did the rest of the villagers.

"Cait Shelter will always be your home. Don't you ever forget, okay?"

* * *

Onibus Town:

It was two days since they arrived here. Two days of nothing to do and two days of being left completely bored. Staying at the inn was becoming expensive, but with Kakashi having not found a good deal for a plot of land to establish their guild house yet, it would be impossible to do anything. It was a good thing that he had word on the others right now and he was thrilled in seeing Yamato's group meeting them in this place. They gave no specified date to get here, but all four of them had been on rotation to meet up at the train station in case they arrived.

Naruto sighed once more as he looked up at the ceiling. He couldn't train, couldn't do anything active, it was as if Kakashi was punishing him about that incident two nights ago!

His thoughts were cut off when Kakashi had come into their room and called for him about something important.

The blonde got up and the silver haired Jounin handed him over a box.

The blonde open the lid and saw a set of clothes different from what he was wearing now. Naruto looked at his teacher who was merely smiling as Kakashi mentioned, "As a member of Kage, you are required to wear your uniform. Anko, Gai and I all have our own uniforms. This is yours."

Naruto grabbed the red linen from the box and held it up and noticed it was a red, sleeveless Haori with black flame designs at the hem reminding him of the sage coat he wore not too long ago. The only difference was the slits present on the sides and the insignia of Kage emblazoned on the back, the Kanji of shadow spreading from the base of the neck down to the upper tailbone area of the cloth. Naruto looked at the box to see more of his new wardrobe and saw a pair of black wool gloves reaching below his elbows and white arm guards similar to what the ANBU wear.

Bewilderment turned into a smile and smile turned to an ever infectious grin, Naruto's sour mood was gone as he said to his teacher, "Oh I am so going to look badass in this."

Naruto grabbed the porcelain mask from his bag and decided to put it on.

"**From the depths of the shadows we will be as swift as the wind and strike fast as light, and the hearts of our enemies shall tremble in fright, for we are Kage, the shadow that exists but remains unknown."**

* * *

To be continued…

And here's the next instalment. I have now got some several ideas on how to improve most of Naruto's age group. Wendy's involvement in it was only a spur of the moment, but I think it's something I probably could have done better, I don't know. With classes starting next week, I had to get some chapters out before it begins. I'm still writing "Unwanted Travelling" and "To be A Hero". And I think I can get them both out by next week. Preparations for school can be a hassle, but it's not that hard once you're in professional school. Not much of a line but a whole lot to pay.

Anyway, here's the chapter! My slump seems to be slowly disappearing, if I keep this up, maybe I can get it back and be better!

Read and Review, chaps!


	8. Parting for Now

_Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival._

_-C.S. Lewis_

* * *

Crossing the River Gates

Chapter 8: Parting for Now

His vision was cloudy, filled with haze and blurry images of trees and bushes as he dragged his feet in walking aimlessly. He could hear the distinct sound of birds chirping around him and the grinding noise of metal sliding on the ground and carving it kept present in his ear as he held it with his only arm. Blood dripped from the stump of what was supposed to be left arm now and he could hear the heavy droplets of it falling on the ground and mixing with the sound of the soft rain pelting his whole being.

Despite his injuries, he kept walking and tried to find civilization. He breathed out raggedly as he took each agonizing step. His mind blacked out several times but he willed himself to stay awake for if he were to close his eyes now, he would surely die.

He stumbled on the ground, his body now close to giving up. The pain, the wounds, the endless torment, it was gripping him by the neck as he tried to get up using his sword as support to walk once more. Shakily, he tried to get up but then, just as he was close to walking again, his body gave out.

His mind was willing, but his body wasn't.

He fell to the ground once more, experiencing and tasting the dirt on the forest floor as his breath became much more haggard. He was getting numb and his vision started to turn black on the sides slowly coming to grip with the fact that he was indeed close to dying.

'_Is this how I'm supposed to die? In a place I don't even know?'_

Just before he lost his consciousness, his blurry vision caught a glimpse of a strange patch of blue and white.

* * *

Magnolia:

In times of utterly baffling and mind boggling situations, humans have come to understand that there is little one can do until things finally unravel. In response, they either show indifference or complete disregard to things that would normally unconcern them.

For people that they actually do care about, things become slightly different.

'_Demon Mirajane, the lovely spitfire of Fairy Tail finally meets her destined one?'_

The article, another headline coming from Sorcerer Weekly, had decided to put Mirajane's name and face once more due to her prominence and a juicy gossip story to grab the reader's attention. Elfman knew that his sister would never hear the end of it. Be it from Erza or the rest of the guild members, he was sure that they would bother his sister about it for quite sometime.

That wasn't what surprised him, however, it was the fact that the rumor mill was quick to dig around for scoop like this and spread it in a matter of days all around Fiore was what amazed him.

He hadn't even told a soul about it!

But considering Mira's disposition of sighing and daydreaming at the front of the bar for the past two days have been, he couldn't blame them.

"Mira-nee, he really had your heart by his hand, huh?" Their youngest siblings asked and a smile was slowly etching on her face as Mirajane was taken back by that sudden question.

"W-What are you talking about? That guy just managed to get into the wrong place at the right time! I wouldn't dare fall for a stranger! Don't you think that's being to shallow of me, Lisana?" She refuted while her sister simply tried to keep her chuckling down to a minimum but ultimately failing.

"Your face tells me a different story, Mira-nee." She added as the eldest of the siblings suddenly felt like she had exposed herself.

Seeing her sister's gesture, Lisana pushed for more details with a smirk, "So what's this person like? Is he handsome? Cool? Dashing?"

Mirajane would have answered all of them with a yes. But she shook her head furiously at that.

"No, no, no! You got it all mistaken! I don't have any sort of feelings for anybody!" She declared, at the top of her lungs causing everyone in the guild to stare at her curiously while she glared back. Everyone that weren't Mirajane's siblings shivered from her murderous gaze as they all went back and minded their own business.

"Could have fooled me, nee-san." Lisana added with a smirk as her arm rested on the bar while trying her best not to laugh.

"You've been hanging out with Shikamaru and his group too much." Mira said while trying to change the topic. She was uncomfortable with this, curse her sister's prying!

On to the other side of town, Shikamaru sneezed loud enough for everyone near to stare at him

"Sounds like you're coming down with a cold, Shika. You sure you're alright?" Kiba asked as he had his back resting against his most loyal companion, Akamaru. The Kazekage's right hand man simply glared at the Inuzuka before answering, "You need to get that superstition out of your head. And I should be the one who needs to be worried, what with you sitting on Akamaru for just a simple walk and all."

Kiba simply grinned, "Can't help it if I want to goof off after a job well done. At least with this we got Erza out of your hair for a while. Not that I don't mind it of course, she's a babe after all!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "Not really, we managed to remove Erza's doubt but we've also brought attention to ourselves with that last job."

Kiba knew what Shikamaru was pointing out. But he couldn't exactly elaborate about it, they were sworn to never speak of it outside their circle ever again and deny any questions that pertained to what happened two days ago about any form of involvement except for Erza, Grey and Natsu. And those three, on their honour and promise to him, would not so much as utter a word after the job thus, the reason why Natsu had been quiet about it in Lisana's company since yesterday.

"Speaking of those three, did it ever occur to you that they're spending time with us a lot more frequently? I mean, Natsu, I can understand since he wants to grow stronger under Lee's supervision in close combat and beat him at the same time, but Gray and Erza? I admit that I don't mind Erza, but I think she has more in mind aside from her curiosity." Kiba mentioned this and looked up at the sky. There wasn't anything that could tell him that a rain would soon come.

"You noticed too, huh? She's most likely seeing how organized our work is and learning what she can to make it as effective in the guild as possible." Shikamaru mentioned while he grabbed a cigarette from his rear pocket before lighting it up with Asuma's lighter.

"Is it really that harmless? You have to admit, that's a pretty weak assessment coming from someone like you." Kiba mentioned this while Shikamaru was taking a whiff and smoking it out of his mouth a second later.

"That's because she said it to me when we were about to go home the other day. She said that I should tutor her. She doesn't look like the type that would tell any sort of bullshit." Shikamaru said so as if it was a mere afterthought. Kiba looked like he was seething with envy as they walked while Akamaru was looking concerned.

"It still boggles me why you and Naruto have this natural attraction to women, you know. I still don't get why you, of all people, as fish eyed and as lazy as you look, get all the women, hot ones at that." Kiba remarked while Shikamaru felt like he was about to choke.

"How the hell should I know? I could never understand a woman's mind. You think I would have had to hide from my mother all those years ago if I could understand how a girl thinks?" Shikamaru retorted, annoyed at Kiba's statement of him being associated as a very, _very,_ slick player.

Shikamaru took another whiff before he continued, "And please, Naruto? Hinata almost died just for him to get a clue. I admit he can be charismatic, but I doubt he could pick up a woman if his life depended on it."

"Hinata and most of the females he's met would disagree with you, Shika." Kiba retorted while Shikamaru, for a moment, looked confused at that.

"Oh, are there any other women I should know about?" Shikamaru asked with a raised eyebrow while Kiba began to think of names of any woman that Naruto might have accidentally pulled over to his fan club.

After a few minutes, the Inuzuka grinned as he was about to retort. But he was abruptly stopped when he caught the scent of Erza getting closer and closer to them.

"Speaking of Erza, she's coming to our direction from the left. Tell me Shikamaru, are you going to give some 'lessons' for today?" Kiba asked with a grin on his face while the pineapple headed chuunin basically told him to screw off.

Kiba grinned, for the first time since hanging out with Shikamaru. He managed to let their impromptu leader tell him to shut up.

Life is good.

With Sakura and the others:

Shikamaru had been so kind enough (in his own way), to lend them a book from Makarov about the basics of magic and some transcribing notes that Shikamaru was willing to lend to her. The fact that she offered her services to take care of the meticulous part of actually translating this writing system was quite a bonus for the lazy chuunin.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Old habits die hard, she supposed.

Startling to say the least, that magic users tend to only get a mere ten percent of the total population of an entire country or perhaps an entire civilization, especially since most of the wilderness from what they had encountered, should have been part of something close to it. Confusing and quite interesting since by comparison, in their world, chakra exists in everyone and that anybody can harness their power as long as they're willing.

Now Kekkei Genkai users, they are another story altogether.

"Natsu-kun, it is wise to not use your entire weight in one punch, you are too straightforward and you are open in so many angles for a counterattack."

Sakura turned her attention away from the book for a while and watched Lee tutor Natsu while her fellow pink haired acquaintance looked at Lee with an attentive expression while Lee demonstrates his point on a tree stump. In a moment's notice, Lee punched the wooden stump as it had a fist sized hole on the middle of the wooden object.

"You see, it's not in the weight, it is in the momentum of the hip and the force accumulated on the ground when you deliver a blow. That way, a little power is sacrificed but you are left with as little openings as possible." Lee once more demonstrates, this time, he retracts his punch and proceeded with another.

"Eventually, you will be able to punch hard enough that you won't even have to think about your stance anymore." Lee finished as Natsu looked unimpressed.

"Sakura can punch harder." He countered while the other pinkette shook her head with an amused smile, "Natsu, my style doesn't fit you well. Lee-san's teachings will be better for you because of how effective your magic would be with Lee's tutelage."

Natsu looked unconvinced at that while he was watching Happy fish with a pout.

"But Lee hasn't shown me anything that can be as cool as yours!"

Sakura simply shook her head as she approached the duo all with a smile on her face. She stopped near a rock and punched it in the same gesture as Lee. The offending object crumbled under Sakura's blow in a smouldering heap as if it was just a sand bag.

"That is just my specialty. Lee's specialty is with speed, which would be far more beneficial for you in the long run." Sakura replied and she simply patted the dragon slayer on the shoulder. Besides, Natsu would probably find the rest of her skills boring.

She sighed as she read the book once more. Her interest piqued at its highest when she had read that healing magic is a very rare craft and bordered to almost lost-magic levels of mysticism.

She couldn't relax for some reason as she felt something was about to happen.

* * *

With Shizune's group:

"Are you sure you're fine with this, Wendy? You could still go back." Shizune asked. Although she can understand the chief's reason for the young girl to be with them, she felt Wendy was in more danger to them than in Cait Shelter. After all, facing one madman with the power that can decimate an entire country should be a warning sign to anyone which is why she was so concerned with the child going with them.

The girl to her front looked back to them and said, "The chief said that I should go with you all because he thought it was for the best."

That was the thing. Their current opponent had an arsenal enough to wipe out an entire country. No matter what anyone said, going with them was borderline crazy.

But even she was bound to her word. She couldn't just return Wendy now. That's because whatever that old chief would be thinking, it would probably mean that he now had to focus on keeping that weapon a secret from the entire world. She couldn't help but feel the exact same in regards to their jinchuuriki.

"If it really does come to that, then we have no other choice. Logically speaking, Wendy's inclusion to our group should be beneficial to us." Shino mentioned this as they rode the train to Magnolia while the other group made their way to a checkpoint to meet up before going to Onibus town. Shizune and the others aren't worried about them, to say the least. The group was composed of two former ANBU members and a Jounin. If anything, they should worry about themselves for they have two people that weren't in good fighting condition.

Shino was temporarily incapable of drawing his insects and Chouji was now a whole lot thinner and much more frail looking than Shino. A little push from Charle and Chouji might keel over and die.

That being said, Shino had another point to give as to why having Wendy to their group was beneficial was that they don't know anything about their writing system and they have no currency of the country they were in making their ryo totally useless here. Thus they relied more on the child than they ever thought possible.

It sounded like a horrible idea to mooch off of a kid, but Wendy didn't seem to mind and that they had no other options left. Stealing was out of the picture. She didn't want any sort of reputation standing in the country, good or bad.

As they had just entered the town of Magnolia, Shizune watched Wendy's excitement jumped as she viewed the whole town all around her, curiosity and amazement surged through her at how so many people could all fit in one place. But what probably got her excited the most, was none other than the infamous guild in the area, known notoriously in both glamour and delinquency. Home of famous names like Erza the Titania, or Demon Mirajane, this town that she had set foot on, was the town that Fairy Tail stood on.

"All this worrying and sneaking around the country is making me hungry." Chouji muttered as they trekked past the forest bringing Shizune out of her thoughts as she said to the now thin Akimichi,

"We'll be able to eat as soon as we reach the Guild House here. From what Wendy described, it's just a few hours away from here. We should reach Magnolia this late at noon."

Now, it was time for her to wonder.

Just how are the others doing right now?

And as if someone had answered her question, Wendy had managed to bump into what looked like a very large dog.

* * *

Onibus Town:

Naruto, wearing his new wardrobe, looked at the three people around him, all unfamiliar under their porcelain masks of different colors and differing wardrobes.

To his front was Kakashi wearing white porcelain wolf mask with its left eye covered and somewhat bulging. He wore a black kimono on top of with thin sleeves that reached just below his elbow and brown pants finishing short just above his ankle bound by medical tape before continuing to his sandals. On his forearms were braces made purely of mesh and to finish of his attire, a grey sleeveless haori that reached just above the back of his knees.

To Naruto's right stood Anko, wearing her snake mask a green flack vest left open over a black zip up jacket and a pair of equally black shorts showing off her shapely legs. Her right thigh was then wrapped by bandages and a pouch bag just above her rear.

Gai however, looked the flashiest of the four of them. Wearing the tiger mask, Gai sported a blue torn monk's attire on the torso, covered with tiger skin upon his right shoulder and a leather shoulder guard to his left as well as his forearms and a pair of shin and knee guards with a thick black swirl hitting its peak at the very center over what looked like a black leotard and a pair of blue slip on shoes.

Now complete with their attire and assembled just inside Kakashi's room, the four man guild was having their first official meeting.

Kakashi then spoke.

"Surprisingly, I just got an unexpected mission this early from the council concerning about a rumor of thieves planning to disrupt a train heading here."

"Huh… You think that we'd get our first mission after another month." Anko said in bemusement as she leaned her head back with her arms at the back of her head.

"They apparently want to see how good we are. So it's more like a test than anything else. They want to see if we're worth the money." Gai commented as Kakashi nodded at this.

Naruto, beneath his mask, was shaking with anticipation as he just obtained his first mission as a guild member. It definitely brought a feeling of excitement within him for it was the first mission he had in a long time after recovering.

"I know you're excited, Naruto. But do remember we have rules of engagement that we want to uphold unless absolutely necessary." Kakashi informed him while the said blonde only gave a nod of understanding. Kakashi then raised his right hand to make a point.

"First, we should make no fatal mistakes. The council is very strict with this policy. They're more like a police force than anything else and believe that to use magic in a manner would only put them at the same level as the dark guilds. Second, no flashy techniques unless absolutely necessary. We don't want them to know any of our abilities if we can help it. That means no Rasenshuriken, Hirutora, Kamui or any other technique that might cause total mayhem on our mission unless there's a need that we can't avoid doing them. Finally, we should work as efficient and as clean as possible. We shouldn't leave traces that it was us who did it. Our existence will be denied if word pops out of the council. But it's best that we don't give as much headache as possible. We are professionals now, so it's best we maintain that kind of mindset when we work."

Kakashi paused for a moment as he looked at his student, who was only nodding.

"I get it. No killing, no flashy techniques and leave no traces." Naruto repeating what Kakashi had just said took a mental note to do all of what the Jounin desired in their work.

"Kind of a different feeling seeing you acting like pro here, kid, I already miss the lovable idiot that wouldn't shut his trap about being the Hokage." Anko said with an amused smirk while Naruto, sensing that there was an insult there somewhere, simply gave a scowl beneath his mask.

"Hey, I can be serious from time to time too, you know."

Anko simply gave an offhanded reply, "It doesn't quite fit your personality. Its better you be your idiotic self."

"I find that very insulting."

Anko simply cackled beneath her mask as Kakashi opened the window and all of them vanished within the room with not a sound but the gentle wind blowing from the outside.

* * *

Magnolia Town, several hours later:

Firearms were a new thing to Tenten.

Although she had seen Alzack and Bisca use the things once or twice was enough to warrant her curiosity about them, she had never once thought of getting hold of them mostly because it was loud, something that should be a warning sign to anyone who had the right mind to dodge them. But still, the usefulness of the tool far outweighed the cons and Tenten was seriously having another look at the new weapons that were in front of her.

Kiba and Ino had said that these were 'handguns', hand carried weapons you could holster anytime to pick up and fire with just one hand, a weird tool for her since she was used to shuriken, kunai and any other hand thrown projectile that she could think of. This one was different. It shot out projectiles faster than she could throw with one hand.

Tenten grasped the cold metal handle of the first weapon with her right hand as she inspected its intricate patterns and gripped the firearm well within her hand. She could literally feel something in herself as she held the gun close. A feeling of excitement littered her as she grasped it with her hand. She could feel _something _within herself rise as she aimed the gun to one of the trees with one hand. Soon, that feeling surged to a new level now that Tenten was able to handle the weight of her weapon well with just one hand. She could somehow feel power from within herself as she held the gun.

It should be noted that getting hold of a weapon she had no idea and a dangerous fascination to them was a formula people should be careful of.

"Tenten-san, we're going to the guild house right now."

Hinata's voice interrupted Tenten's train of thought as she looked back at the Hyuuga Heiress with a questioning gaze.

"What for, is it another mission?"

Hinata shook her head this time, urgency was in her voice.

"Shizune-san and the others had just arrived, and she says that they've found Naruto-kun and the others."

Relief had seemed to wash over her as soon as she heard that Shizune and her group had managed to find the others first than they did. And they found their protectorate to boot. That was something worth celebrating about.

"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes. I'll need a change of clothes."

All thoughts about firearms were suddenly set aside in favor of seeing her comrades again. Tenten sealed the weapons in her scroll before going back to their dorm and changing to her more proper attire.

Back at the guild house, everyone was staring at the newcomers who had just arrived, claiming to be part of the group that the new members were in search of. They also got an endorsement from one of their own, namely Mistgun who had informed them that the group was here. As they all watch the woman talk about her long lost comrades, Wendy had unceremoniously looked around for any sign of any celebrity from Fairy Tail, and lo and behold, her eyes caught site of the great Titania herself, now bickering with the Demon Mirajane with the silver haired beauty being on the defensive.

"I don't buy it. Mistgun is very reclusive. He refuses to talk to anybody other than the master and the bastard puts us to sleep whenever he gets here!" One of the men shouted, clearly looking in suspicion with the group.

Shikamaru was the first to calm the group down, "Relax, people, Kiba already confirmed that they're the real deal. You can't fool someone with a powerful sense of smell that easily."

"So Kakashi-sensei and the others are already making their move, I would have guessed that they look for the others first. But seeing as they have Naruto secured, a good head start would have probably brought them a better chance than scouring all over the country looking for us." Kiba mentioned as he looked to his side, Lee and the others had just arrived now wearing their uniforms.

"I don't think that is the case. Naruto was already scouring the entire country looking for us before he said anything about Kakashi-san's plan." Shikamaru mentioned as he sat down at the table and thought through the whole thing.

"His plan has the best success at this rate, and he'll need all the manpower he can muster. Not to mention, Sasuke is out of the fight for some time if what you say is true, so that takes out one of two threats we have right now. Things might be going much more smoothly than I anticipated." The Nara continued, he looked over to Sakura, then to Lee and then to the rest of the group.

"This should come as no surprise about what we'll do next. We're going to meet up with the gang to the place where they say we'll meet. From there, we can come up with a much better plan and most importantly, any logistic concerns and a base of operations."

Ino raised her hand here, "What about Sasuke?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this, "What about him?"

Lee was the one who answered, "If what Shizune-san had said is to be believed then should we continue with the search?"

Shikamaru shook his head at this, "No time. Sasuke is the least of our concerns right now. What we need is a way back home. If possible, we'll handle him when the time is right, but not right now. The sooner we get to meet with Kakashi's group, the better."

Surprisingly, it was Sakura who agreed with the Kazekage's right hand man.

"Shikamaru is right; we have no time in handling Sasuke-kun. Regrouping is our priority right now and Naruto needs all the protection he can get against the remaining threat."

By that, everyone who had participated in the war knew exactly what Sakura was talking about, the madman Uchiha Madara.

"All this small talk is making my head hurt, Lee! Let's get out of here and teach me more stuff!" Natsu whined as he was trying to drag out the bowl cut boy, but Lee, with but a melancholic smile shook his head to the dragon slayer.

"I'm sorry, Natsu-kun. But I'm afraid I can't teach you anymore. I have something to do now. And it involves me leaving this guild."

Natsu stopped dead in his tracks at that as he looked at the group that he had just a mission with a few nights ago.

"What are you guys talking about?" The dragon slayer of flame asked, as Happy glided by his shoulders and said in a sad tone,

"Lee and the others are leaving."

Then, there was a silence that permeated within the guild. Everyone was looking at the small group as they all looked with serious faces with each other. Mira and Erza had stopped their fighting in favor of watching the small group to see where the conversation was going.

"I knew that this day would come. Sooner or later you were all bound to leave this place." A voice had interrupted that silence as they turned to the short old man sitting at the counter.

Wendy instantly recognized Makarov Dreyar, a member of the ten wizard saints. Sitting on his cute little orange hat and drinking his oversized mug of beer, the guild master of Fairy Tail stood up on the counter and looked rather at ease at the moment.

"Erza, would you please do the honours."

It was more like a command rather than a request to the girl, but nonetheless she complied.

"It was nice knowing all of you." Kiba mentioned with a smile, a melancholic one at that. Something that caused some of them to smile back, albeit reluctantly.

As Erza spoke the first rule, Natsu was quick to object.

"Why do you have to leave now? We still haven't started our match, Lee!" Any further objection coming from Natsu was stopped when a hand was placed on his shoulders. Natsu looked at the person who stopped him and saw Lisanna shaking her head. Natsu soon stopped after that.

"The first rule, you must never reveal any tactics that could prove to be a weakness to Fairy Tail."

"It was a lot of fun spending time with all of you." Ino said with a sincere smile.

Wendy stopped as she looked back at the people she was with. Not even close to an hour and they were already saying goodbyes again. It soon became clear to her just how much these people took their priorities seriously.

"Natsu-kun, you remind me of a dear friend of mine. He had eyes the same as yours, the eyes of determination, the eyes of a fighting spirit welling inside like a raging flame. Your youth abounds the same manner as his, unquenchable yet gentle. Someday, you will reach unimaginable heights. Until then, make sure you remain who you are!" Lee said as he gave the boy a thumb up.

Natsu stared at the green clad boy, and somehow, a smile escaped his lips.

"Second rule; never contact past clients for personal gain." As Erza said those words, instead of a sad farewell, everyone looked on with a smile on their faces.

"Like I'll ever do that, one way or another, I've grown to hate most of our clients, particularly, the last one who came running to us." Shikamaru mentioned this with a snort. He had never found the idea of his clients being likable enough as it is.

"You never got to meet our client, though." Kiba interjected while Shikamaru simply didn't care.

"I should've asked Bisca or Alzack to train me with firearms…" Tenten said this with her head down. Too much of their time was wasted in trying to have a sustainable income with just meagre pay. And that last job almost got them a zero in their effort if it weren't for the mayor.

"Grey, try to keep your exhibitionism to a low after we're gone. People are always crept out of your hobbies." Sakura deadpanned, while Grey retorted back.

"I don't do it on purpose! Also, it's not a damn hobby of mine."

"Whatever, you perv." replied the pink haired ninja, seemingly letting the ice mage fume but not reply any further.

Anything remotely insulting to the lady with the abominable strength was a risk worth not taking.

Everyone was laughing now.

"Third and final rule…"

"This isn't goodbye, but merely a chance to say, 'see you again.'." Was all Hinata could say as she smiled at the friends she had made, to Elfman, to Lisanna, to Erza, to Grey, and then to Natsu.

"Though our paths may diverge, you must continue to live your life with all your might. You must never consider your own life to be of little value and you must never forget your friends who loved you."

Shikamaru smirked at Erza at that, "Consider this as a parting advice; take that last word to heart yourself. We already knew that stuff the day we became soldiers. Also, since you've fought with us, you've already proven yourselves within our ranks. We aren't just friends anymore, we're comrades in arms. You've earned our respect and our friendship."

Sakura recalled one of the teachings left to them by their former leader, the Sandaime Hokage, "The will of fire will burn and it will overshadow all doubt in your mind. Your trust will be your sharpest blade and in the most crucial of times, will prove more powerful than anything that you can wield."

It was then that the wind had began picking up all around the shinobi as Shizune grabbed Wendy by the hand and waved goodbye at the guild members of Fairy Tail before bowing.

"We can't thank you enough for what you've done for them."

And with that, they all vanished in a cloud of smoke all at the same time leaving behind a stunned group of mages.

"T-That spell was a standard issue to them?" Makarov suddenly asked, mentally palming himself for the idiocy of just letting them go. That no short of near a teleportation spell, and this entire group had managed to do it all!

It would be the last that they would ever see them for quite some time.

* * *

Oak Town:

Neji, Yamato and Sai all had been scouring the town for hours on end since their arrival. Normally, all of them would have stayed put at one place that was close to the station, all three of them had long amounts of patience after all. But even the most well behaved person would have a moment where they would snap out of sheer boredom. So Yamato decided to let them all have time to get their minds off of the task at hand and let them all find some useful information within the town.

As expected, there wasn't much, only rumors about certain events that were happening within the town. Yamato most likely wanted them to relieve some of their anxiety by focusing on something else. Ever since they entered the town, they've been getting antsy. It was probably the presence of the guild Phantom Lord.

It wasn't just them, it was the whole town. They were wary, cautious to say the least. Neji heard strange stories, nasty rumors that involved the said guild. That the guild master was some sort of control freak and had a mean streak like no other. He heard people whisper that this Jose Parlo, for being elected as one of the ten wizard saints, was much more of a demon than anything else.

From what he understood, guilds operated like a ninja village. But all guilds are under authority of an even bigger administration, the Magic Council, who even has a tight leash on these guilds, at least in some form.

Strange rumors, but rumors nonetheless, Neji had no desire to involve himself in something he wasn't part of. He had other important matters to attend to, such as the matter of going back home and finally putting an end to the war.

When Neji, Sai and Yamato had met up to the same place that they had split up before, the talking began.

"Any luck?" Yamato asked and both of them shook their heads.

"It is unfortunate, but the only things that I've found were only nasty rumors about the local guild here." Neji mentioned at this as he stared at the building that was Phantom Lord's main guild house.

Yamato nodded at this. He had been hearing those rumors as well. Phantom Lord had a slightly bad reputation that involved taking jobs that were borderline illegal from the council's point of view.

As he looked at the guild house itself, he couldn't help but wonder, for someone as powerful and as influential as Jose Parlo, surely he would know something about their current predicament.

Sai had the same thoughts as well, but it wasn't in the lines of dealing things diplomatically like with Yamato. For all his cluelessness with human interaction, he wasn't immune to hold suspicions on people with shady backgrounds. He had done his fair share of dealing with demons and he wouldn't be likely doing so again anytime soon, which was why he wanted to choose a more indirect approach.

"As much as I want to ask for information about anything that we would deem important, I think it would be better to leave this guild alone. Poison, no matter how sweet, is still poison. Dealing with this Jose Parlo character may not be such a good idea based from what he's been described as." Neji offered his opinion in the matter while Yamato nodded.

"Agreed, there is simply no telling what this man will do. Spying or abducting is also not an option, Sai. I know what you're thinking." The Wood user said and Sai responded calmly with a smile of his own.

"I was thinking more in the lines of infiltration, interrogation and perhaps elimination. Someone as high profile as this man with a bad reputation would surely put us in his list of priorities to either recruit or be coerced to join his guild. The chances of us facing him after denying his request seems unavoidable should we make contact."

Neji shook his head at this, "That's not the point, Sai. We need Ino for a mind scan and wipe if we want to avoid a possible nationwide manhunt. Remember what Kakashi-sensei has planned for us. It's better to leave these high profile people to their own musings unless we're authorized to do it."

It was then that at Neji's side that he saw a man, rather wild looking. His hair was jet black and ran about to every which way reaching down to his lower back. Three piercing were placed on his eyebrows over sharp, dangerous red eyes and on his ears as well as his arms. He wore a tunic with metal acting as the edge of his sleeve and collars that separated by the middle and only held on by an iron belt. He wore white pants that reached to his ankles and covered by his steel toed leather boots.

He looked intimidating that was for sure, and he was staring dangerously to Neji and Sai's group.

"What are you looking at, punk?" He asked to Neji who seemed silent and looked ready to fight despite him still recuperating.

Yamato decided to intervene before anything else escalates.

"Please don't mind us. My friend here has been looking slightly agitated since we got here. Whatever it is you're thinking, good sir, please pay no heed. All of us here are foreigners and we're new to this place."

The fierce looking man only grinned as he held the Hyuuga by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him closer before replying with a menacing grin, "I don't think you quite understand of the position you're in. You're in our town. Any hostility towards one of us is met with my guild's full power. If you've got problems, then tough shit, or are you do you want a beat down? In this place, you only have to follow one rule, and that's ours, punk."

Neji's frown turned into a full scale scowl, "I don't know if emphasizing your territory proves anything and I don't know much about you. But I'm not here to cause trouble. But if you insist on instigating a fight, then I won't hold back."

Neji then pushed the man's arm off, not feeling intimidated, not even once.

"What is the meaning of this, Gajeel?"

All attention then switched from the two would be fighters to the source of the voice. Standing just behind the man now identified as Gajeel, Jose Parlo looked on with neither apprehension nor disappointment, merely a look of boredom spread on his face as he questioned the feral looking man.

"Nothing, Master, just telling the foreigners the rules of this town, that's all" Gajeel answered with his back against the guild master and showing his maniacal grin to Neji.

"Good. The last thing I need right now is you scaring off potential clients. Come back to the guild, we have much to discuss about your promotion" The guild master then went on his way back to the guild without even looking back.

With a click of his tongue, Gajeel turned his back from the group who remained vigilant, all the while sneering at the trio. Many people may tend not to notice, but Gajeel could assess if one is a fighter or not by nose alone, for warriors had this distinct smell that he could tell apart and it was deathly obvious for him not to notice.

It was the smell of blood and refined metal. All three of them were practically laced in it, no, bathing in it! Almost as bad as those knights that came from a war. He grinned from ear to ear. There was no telling what their level of prowess is. He was sorely tempted to find out, itching to do battle. But that would probably never happen. Their guild master has a tight leash on them and whatever he says goes with his most elite. What was hindering him was the fact that under Master Jose's rule, Gajeel would be one of his lap dogs, his most loyal and bloodthirsty lap dog.

As Yamato, Neji and Sai all cautiously watched the man known as Gajeel walk away with weary eyes. They could tell that the man was a loose canon and could see why someone like Jose Parlo would want to keep the mage on a tight leash.

"Just half a day and already you're causing quite a ruckus in this town. When did Naruto's role as a magnet for trouble ever switch? And to think I was more worried about us than your group, Yamato-san."

All three men turned around and saw a smirking Shizune with a very scared Wendy hiding behind her, obviously intimidated by the pierced man.

"Ah, Shizune-san, you're finally here!" Yamato exclaimed, relieved at the fact that their team had made it in one piece.

"All people present and accounted for, Yamato-san, oh, and I brought some extra people along." Shizune continued, dropping Tonton from her arms as she looked back, Neji looked at the people behind Shizune and saw his team, along with Sai's, Chouji's and Shino's all made it safe and sound.

"Neji-kun, it is most youthful to see you so well!"

He had never thought he would miss such ramblings from his green clad teammate. He gave a small smirk as Tenten and his aforementioned teammate approached him.

"Glad to see two are well." The Hyuuga prodigy said and Tenten gave a sigh of defeat.

"Yeah, glad to see you too, although I'm sure you had a great time seeing as you didn't have to deal with Lee's incessant talk for two months." Tenten mentioned. The thought of dealing with her teammate on her own was enough to cause her to want any form of anaesthetic to relieve some of her headaches that happened.

Neji managed to let go an out of character chuckle and commented to his female teammate, "You sound like an old woman."

The bun haired girl merely glared at him but decided to let it go.

"Neji-nii-san, it is good to see you well."

Neji turned around and saw his cousin greeting him with a bow, Neji returned the gesture.

"Thank you, Hinata-sama, and to you as well, I trust that our friends have done well in taking care of you?"

Kiba rolled his eyes at this, "Mostly it was all of us watching each other's backs. But we pulled through. Hinata isn't exactly helpless now, is she?"

"With Shikamaru's intelligence and an overall balanced roster, I should have expected nothing less from them." Shino added, earning a chuckle from Kiba and a bark from Akamaru.

"Chouji, I'm simply amazed that you could still stand even after doing your Hijutsu. Was it because of Shizune-sempai?" Ino asked and Chouji shook his head at this with a sincere smile.

"Believe it or not, it's all because of that little girl with Shizune-san right now. She has this really powerful healing jutsu that regenerated most of my body functions. If it wasn't for her, Sai would have probably carried me with an ink bird all the way here without meeting you guys."

Shikamaru was raising his eyebrow at this.

"You mean Wendy? That kid has a strange healing ability?"

Sakura looked curious at this as she gave some of her decoded notes to Shikamaru along with the book as she cradled her chin at the new information from Chouji, "Now that's interesting. Maybe we can study her ability after we meet up with Kakashi-sensei and the others. Just think of the wonders this will have in Field Medicine!"

The pinkette however wasn't done yet as she turned to Sai as her expression turned serious, "I've heard everything from sempai about your encounter with Sasuke-kun. I want details, Sai, don't leave ANYTHING out."

Sai merely gave a smile as he replied callously, "I never intended to hide anything from you, ugly."

"And, you still need to work on your communication skills, apparently." Sakura deadpanned. She should have known.

Sai simply smiled once more, "Why, thank you, witch."

"That wasn't a compliment."

Wendy looked amazed at how these people interacted with each other, it was as if they had known each other all their lives, it was like… Like she was in Cait Shelter again…

A smile slowly crept up at the little girl's face as she watched them all, talking as if they were siblings. Some were laughing, some were annoyed or angry at the teasing and everyone seemed to enjoy each other's company.

It felt like one huge family.

* * *

Twenty Miles North of Oaktown:

Train heists weren't that much well known and probably not that very common either because it was probably the most ambitious or the most hilariously stupid idea any person with half a mind would do simply because trains, unlike boats, tend to have bad reputations of not stopping enough and flattening any obstacle like mush when it does its job.

It was why some of these guys were unsure if robbing a train, a roaring engine of steel that could squish a man into a puddle of every fluid in his body, was the brightest idea that they ever had.

"What the hell am I paying you clowns for? Don't just stand there, plant those Lacrima bombs on the bridge! The train is set to arrive any day now and I want to pull off the greatest heist of the century!"

The leader shouted and many of the grunts that currently worked for him obeyed without as much as questioning as to how the hell they were supposed to stop a train if they were to simply topple it off the bridge to its own doom along with its cargo and passengers.

The bridge was located just behind a rather large mountain curving to the left which meant that the bridge was at the blind side of the curve and very, very, very easy to miss.

"Has the boss gone loony on us?" One of the men asked, the other shrugged.

"No, he's just too damn ambitious for his own good. I think that one of these days; it's either his leadership that's going to kill us all or that rumor we've been hearing about."

Curious, the first one asked his fellow labourer, "What rumor?"

"Didn't you know? There's this psycho that had sent a lot of dark guild members either at the morgue or something close to it. Many of them don't die immediately but it was hard identifying one of them because they were burned down to the core. I mean ashes, there were piles of them. I just hope we don't get to meet this guy. I'm beginning to think that the Magic Council is getting fed up with all this shit happening that they're sending expendable people to do the dirty job."

One of them seemed to scratch his head at this, "What do you mean? The council doesn't have the left nut to do what just happened. Their ideal prevents them from wiping us off in the face of Fiore. It's probably some guy with a bad chip on his shoulder. Don't worry about him, sooner or later he'll run in to one of the more prominent dark guilds, hope and pray that it's either the Oracion Seis or Grimoire Heart. Because I doubt any small time guild will ever stop this guy."

"Which is why I find it out of place that this guy is only targeting dark guilds, you know. It's weird seeing him go from one location to another just to slaughter people left and right and all of his victims were Dark Guild members, not even a civilian casualty coming from their part. Makes me think, they're sending some mentally unstable people in order to flush out the weaker dark guilds before moving on to the core of a then crippled Balaam Alliance." The other mentioned as they got up from the bridge.

"I find that very unlikely since it goes against everything that the Council has stood for. They maybe a bunch of old goats but they're not willing to pay the price when it comes to their magic. Mention the word Zeref or any of his doctrines and those old coots would be shaking in their boots."

"You seriously believe that shit? The council members are fucking liars. They're about as the same man as I am with you. Don't believe the spews coming out of their mouths, they may look benevolent, but they're all a bunch of back stabbing cock suckers!"

"I'm not paying you to discuss politics, damn it! Finish your goddamn job and get to your posts, you slackers!" The leader shouted while one of the grunts asked to no one in particular,

"We're getting paid to do this?"

By this time, four masked strangers had made it by the side of the mountain who had travelled all the way from Onibus Town by foot.

The one in the grey attire looked at the mountainous region filled with lush green trees as he scratched his chin.

"Well, according to the mission data, the group was last seen here in this mountain roaming in hope to find the tunnel leading that the train is placed on for the past few days."

Anko was looking down at the ground and felt the tracks placed it in.

"I guess that's the most recent as we can get. A few days is right, this place has tracks written all over here. My estimate is five days at most. There are a lot of them here. They probably have something up, alright."

The one wearing the white faceless mask spoke, "I don't know what they want in this place anyway. There's practically nothing to steal and pilfer here, where miles and miles away from civilization! The closest thing you could ever have as a robbery here is when you rob a train. I want to see them try to stop THAT!"

Kakashi looked thoughtful at this, "You may have something going on there, Murakumo."

Gai refuted that thought, "I find that highly absurd. If a few ill equipped Bandits were to try that, they would surely fail. I don't think anyone barring mages can ever stop a locomotive unless they have enough resources and good planning."

Anko didn't look quite convinced at that statement, "It doesn't look like they're ill equipped, you know. Insane people are not stupid. They only have an altered state of thinking. In fact, it's their psychosis that actually fuels their thought process. I'd be careful underestimating crazy people, Byakko. One of them happened to be someone who initiated the Fourth Ninja War."

Working with Inoichi and Ibiki certainly helped her with some form of psychology in the T and I department when she wasn't tracking people down.

Kakashi nodded his head at this, "Do you have an estimate on when we'll find them?"

Anko nodded back to the one with the wolf mask, "Yeah, I'd say about two hours by conventional methods, these guys leave one hell of a sloppy trail. It's close to sunset and if I recall, there's a train ride coming from Oaktown that should be arriving in just about the same time. If or when they'll strike, they'll most likely do it at that time."

Kakashi then ordered Naruto to start helping Anko with the tracking and muttered to himself, "More than enough time to discuss our strategy."

* * *

Train to Onibus town:

Riding the train was always something that didn't thrill Sakura. Her team had a bad experience that involved snow and almost being shanked by black spears from machines multiple times. Naruto had it worst since he was almost run over. Also, there was a fact that there was this annoying person coming back and forth into their cart. She noticed that she was not alone in this as Ino herself was about to tell the likely pervert off but was trying really hard to restrain herself and cause a scene. To her front was Shikamaru fast asleep with his mouth open and almost drooling, and to her far left was who Chouji was busy stuffing his face with food from money that THEY had to break their backs on. She retched at the scene and turned her attention back on to the window and huffed. She had to sigh.

'_Men…'_

Because of this, Sakura decided that she would forever hate trains as a mode of transport.

"Your sigh indicates some sort of dissatisfaction in your emotions, Sakura. Is something the matter?"

Sakura had to slam her head by the front seat, startling Shikamaru awake and choking on his own saliva and coughing heavily.

"Sweet Sage of Six Paths, Sakura! What the fuck?" Shikamaru asked, annoyed and quite pissed when he recovered now that his nap was disturbed. Sakura only groaned.

"I hate trains."

Shikamaru only grumbled at the site and transferred to another seat, preferably somewhere where his nap wouldn't be disrupted. Neji probably wouldn't mind him staying with them for a while. He was sure that Hinata was quiet enough for him to be left alone with his sleep.

As he stood up, he noticed that the same man that had been patrolling their cart for the umpteenth time entered and left quickly as soon as he got there. Shikamaru looked to his left and saw Ino glaring at the man and ready to threaten him but only stopped when Shikamaru wordlessly motioned for her to stop before transferring to another seat.

"That person has been coming here for the past twenty minutes. It is as if he's trying to check on something." Kiba mentioned as he was leaning back in his chair while Shino nodded.

"I have been suspicious of the man the first time he had entered the room. He had a face that looked like he had a purpose for coming here, but he didn't seemingly do anything and only kept checking inside and leaving as soon as he can."

Kiba quickly jokingly stated, "With someone as scary as Ino watching your every move, you really should be watching out."

"I HEARD THAT, KIBA!"

Ino shouted from the other side of the cart causing Kiba to flinch slightly.

"Shit. Now I wouldn't hear the end of her rant when we get to Onibus Town." Kiba muttered earning an amused smirk from Shino under his hood.

"It is rather your fault for saying such things." Shino chastised while Kiba glared.

"You know, for being a teammate, you suck at siding with me even if I was the one at fault here."

"I side with no one on this, just merely stating fact."

"If it wasn't for the fact that I'm relieved that you guys are fine despite your encounter with Sasuke, I would have punched you." Kiba mentioned with a deadpan tone as he looked over to the window and saw how fast the train was moving and wondering how Akamaru was faring well in the other cart along with all their cargo.

"Your concern is well noted." Shino mentioned in monotone as he too looked outside, seeing the plains were quickly disappearing and in place of it, was a mountainous region filled with greenery and craggy cliff sides.

To another side of the cart, Wendy curiously asked Shizune, "What are your other friends like, Ms. Shizune?"

Shizune was about to directly answer that one was an open pervert that read smut in front of minors, another was an athletic man that held no shame in wearing skin tight clothing and almost showing his pelvic area with great pride, while another had a tendency to show off her body and a mean sadistic streak in her person and the last one being a cheerful simple minded boy that holds the most powerful beast in their current existence.

"They're a bunch of nice people, Wendy, I'm sure you'll love them." She said with a wry smile while Yamato tried to hold back a snicker.

'_Note to self: Wendy must never be around Anko unsupervised.'_

Wendy seemed to brighten up at this, "With the way things are around Mr. Shino's friends, I'm keeping my hopes up!"

Shizune now tried to hold back a wince.

'_Another mental note: Wendy should never be around Kakashi unsupervised.'_

Shizune was about to stand up and go back to Tonton when she heard screams coming off from the cart right in front of them with a voice angrily yelling at the other side,

"Unless you want to paint this whole train red, I suggest that all you fuckers to calm down before something awful happens and the conductor should comply with MY demands!"

On to the Shinobi's side of the cart, everyone was silently listening to the man as he gave out specific orders to one of the civilians to go to the conductor. Once he was about to enter the door, Sakura leaned close to the adjacent wall and yanked the man out from the front door and slamming the said man to the floor in a mighty show of strength.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" The man screamed as Shikamaru stepped in front of the man with a flat look on his face.

"Your luck sure is pretty crappy, huh?"

"What the fuck are you doing? You want to get us all killed?" He screamed, as Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this.

"Do you mind telling me why then?" Shikamaru asked while the man was close to panicking.

"Get this overly strong lady off me and THEN we'll talk!"

Kiba seemed to scowl at this, "I don't think so. We don't know if you have something up your sleeve so it's better to say what you need to say while you're vulnerable. So talk, mister."

"You don't understand! I'm just one guy! The others are out there waiting for this thing to blow up!"

By now, the other shinobi grew alarmed at this as Wendy watched anxiously, fear and worry written all over her face.

"Kiba, call Akamaru and have Hinata and Shino go with you to see and locate if there are any bombs on this train. Ino, I want ALL information that you can get out of him fast. While you do that, Lee, Neji and Tenten will have to find any suspicious looking people in cahoots with this guy and tell the conductor to **don't stop**. The rest of us will be guarding here since we have a minor and several injured people." Shikamaru stated as Sai immediately slipped out of the cart and silently went up the train roof followed by Yamato.

"Where's Sai going?" Tenten asked as she prepared to gear up with her battle scrolls.

"Leave him. He probably knows his role in this better than anyone. So it's better to leave him be to do whatever it is he feels like to help us."

At this time, Kiba whistled loudly as Akamaru burst open from the other door and barked loudly.

"We don't know how long we've got, but it's best that we move as fast and as careful as possible. Tenten, Neji and Lee will be leading the charge up front from the rear up to the front. Shino, your group will start out at the cargo area and sweep it to see if it has any bombs. Move out!" Shikamaru hollered and the six of them quickly got to work.

Ino grabbed the man by the head and closed her eyes, quickly focusing a mental link between her and their prisoner.

* * *

Night time, mountainous region:

It started off as a night for standing watch and seeing their boss shout at them for being unproductive. Tonight was the culmination of their hard work and their boss' meticulous planning, after all, tensions were high and the boss was getting giddy with excitement. With this, their small time group would be well known throughout the country as one of the most feared people in all of Fiore. People would tremble whenever they would hear his name. They would shake in fear and feel their legs shake when he walked in their presence.

A sense of superiority loomed over him. Oh how he would do anything to get that kind of infamy throughout the whole country!

He chuckled, deeply and menacingly. With this, those old fogeys at the council would have no other choice but to take notice of them.

Just then, he heard the sounds of men screaming outside of his makeshift quarters. He growled in annoyance as he went out. He slammed the door open from his room and his fury turned stone cold as he witnessed something he had never seen among the ranks of his men.

It was chaos.

Men where running around, shouting with torches, pitchforks, swords and magical weapons alike, they were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING HERE?" He shouted, as another man screamed as if something was dragging him away into the dark forest.

"AHHHHHH!"

"Shit! It's managed to get here? How the fuck can it move so fast?" One of them shouted before something grabbed him from above the canopy and dragged him upwards, he had no time to scream as he was dragged up with his mouth gagged.

Soon, swarms of humanoid like creatures dashed into the clearing with speed that would leave any of them flabbergasted.

The men continued to drop like flies as these things kept pouring out of the woodwork and came from almost every side imaginable.

They pummelled, bashed, punched, kicked and beat the tar out of any men able enough to fight them.

"Who ARE these people?" One of them asked before he felt an elbow smashing to his gut and a spinning kick that sent him flying towards the nearest tree and knocking him out.

It didn't take long to eventually find them, Anko had suggested earlier that he should have clones ready for standby as Kakashi wanted to prefer things with a simple night ambush. Getting by their outposts and sentries were easy enough. Sometimes, they would resort to knocking the members out before an alarm could be sound off.

Naruto would serve as the one to initiate the chaos inside while Gai, Anko and Kakashi do their work, which was finding the ring leader. Naruto sighed as he ducked from another blow from a thug and countered with an uppercut straight at the man's chin.

"Well, so much for entertaining the thought that I get to be the one to kick the boss' ass." Naruto commented before another thug was flown away from a straight kick from one of his clones.

Just then, he heard a loud series of explosions coming off from the main camp as Naruto noticed that his clones took the order of causing mayhem a little too far.

"This is my idea of holding back?" Naruto had to ask himself this question as pretty soon, the whole camp was burning to the ground.

Just then, another series of explosions had occurred, only this time, it didn't sound near enough to have happened on the camp itself. Naruto saw smoke billowing from the other side of the mountain and grew concerned. Thinking that he could leave the site alone while his clones do their job of demolition, Naruto leapt to the treetops and immediately went to the site where the smoke was coming from.

With Kakashi and the others:

Chasing after the man was rather difficult despite his presumed mental illness. He was slippery even from the grasp of seasoned shinobi like Kakashi. Kakashi had to think that the man had experience in running from the law multiple times.

To his side, Anko was looking annoyed as the man, although he had sloppy and incompetent subordinates, knew how to hide his trail well enough that she had a slight difficulty in capturing their target.

Gai only fared better as he emphasized how he loved the thrill of the hunt sometimes since it was "A romance of the youthful kind!"

Once they had managed to corner him, they saw from the far background, the long bridge that connected the tracks from one side of the ridge to another.

"Ha! You dogs from the council will never best me! My plans are already set in motion! With just a few more minutes, that bridge will explode and it will send that train hurtling towards the ravine below! I never was after the money from the start! I only wanted them to know of my presence, as a man worthy enough to challenge the very heart of the country's government itself!"

The man then held out a small device from his pocket and thumbed the very top part of it that Kakashi, Anko and Gai were quick to recognize.

It was the trigger for the bomb to go off.

The man smiled, a twisted, maniacal one as it turned to a snicker and then to full blown laughter as the trio was quick to act.

Kakashi leaped forward and Anko held out her hand as multiple serpents came out of her sleeve.

"Sen'ei Jashu (Hidden Snake Hands)!" Anko called out as multiple snakes coiled the man and his grip loosened from the handle. Kakashi getting it just in time before it fell to the ground.

But before a sigh of relief came, Kakashi heard something as his fears suddenly came true.

**BOOM!**

Kakashi turned his back slowly to the bridge only to find it gone, destroyed in an instant with the man laughing despite his current position.

"That device was a decoy from the start! Those Lacrima bombs were timed!"

Kakashi silently watched as he could feel that their first mission right now, turned into an utter disaster.

* * *

With Shizune's group:

Sai knew that de-arming bombs were like setting off booby traps. Finding them wouldn't be simple enough. His training mentioned that bombs normally were found in places where you least likely to suspect, something not hard to reach but something that wouldn't be thought off as out of place. It also included that bombs were placed in the most crucial of areas where they can do the most significant damage.

Which was why he was on the roof, if anything, he was the one that needed to work fast and transfer all of those bombs away from the cart.

Minutes pass by and the result was negative. His ink familiars couldn't find anything while Yamato used his wood element to help brace both of them on to the roof.

"Still no sign?" Yamato asked and Sai shook his head.

"No, there isn't but we need to keep trying."

A few more minutes and still nothing, Sai was ready to conclude that the threat was merely a hoax when Yamato quickly shouted to him and pointed up front.

"Tunnel!"

Sai was quick to react and quickly drew out two giant ink birds as both of them flew to the sky and over the mountains, barely being smashed into the craggy top of the tunnel.

Inside the cart, Shikamaru was waiting patiently and anxiously from Ino's probing.

"Anything you can get?" Shikamaru asked as Ino shook her head.

"No, I don't have anything I can get from this man. Something's blocking me from completely getting the information that we want."

Shikamaru clicked his tongue, "There has to be something in there, can you break that type of mind lock?"

Ino shook her head, "I'm afraid this is the limit with my current ability. Picking mind locks is an advanced field from my father. He had yet to teach me about it."

Shikamaru glanced at the man that was knocked out cold.

It was then that Chouji heard a low rumbling sound before entering the tunnel and the loud whistle coming from the locomotive.

"What was that?"

"Shikamaru, we couldn't find any bombs in any of the carts! We think that the guy here has the bombs strapped to his body!" Kiba shouted loudly coming from the front cart as Hinata had her Byakugan active.

"No, our suspicions are wrong! He doesn't have them!" Hinata shouted as Shikamaru paused for a few seconds.

'_Which means…'_

Shikamaru suddenly realized the true nature of what was happening and quickly dashed away from the cart.

'_The dude we got wasn't probably a part of the operation. I assume that it was something else. From the way he said it, I immediately assumed he was part of the group. But now I know. I need to stop the train! And if that rumble is anything to go by, something already exploded!'_

"Shit! Stop the train now!"

But it was already too late. The train was already going past the tunnel and was curving to the left, to a blind side, to where a bridge supposedly was…

With Sai and Yamato:

Yamato looked quite shocked when he saw the bridge explode to smithereens. It was no wonder Sai couldn't find the bombs, they were placed outside the train into an equally important structure.

As they dropped down to their side of the ravine, Yamato squinted as he saw someone land just on to the edge and then someone laughing by the side. Both former ANBU members were quick to recognize the red and black flame pattern design haori and quickly noted it was Naruto. They had managed to come here all the way to Onibus Town!

"Yamato-taichou, the train is moving out of the tunnel fast."

Yamato nodded and quickly rode the ink bird with a strained voice, Yamato weaved through several handseals and shouted, "Mokuton: Kousaten Kakehashi no Jutsu! (Wood Release: Crossing Bridge Building Technique)"

Two large and long log pillars then erupted from one side of the cliff and swiftly crossing the other. The sound of the Train's whistle echoing throughout the mountains as it ran full force to the wooden bridge splintering it as Yamato focused on making his wooden bridge faster.

By the time it had crossed the makeshift bridge, the train began to slow down and grinded to a complete stop once it completely reached the other end.

Everybody let out a sigh of relief.

"T-That was close…" Yamato muttered in deep breaths as Naruto approached them.

"You guys alright?" He asked, and both of them nodded. Sai, however, asked Naruto with a smile on his face, "Hello, Naruto. What's up with the ugly mask?"

Naruto sighed once more as he sat down, today's excitement surely brought out a lot of stress lately. A grin slowly made its way on to his face, the thrill was over, but it was still very memorable even for him.

"Naruto!" The blonde turned around and saw all of his friends with him; the blonde removed his mask as his grin was full force for the world to see.

"Hey, guys! Guess what? We're officially open for business!"

* * *

To be Continued…

Crossing the River Gates: The Rubicon's Flow, prologue end.

I'm sorry if I haven't updated, but like I said, I was busy with Med School. It's stressful and work has never been harder for me. Don't get me wrong; what's hard in med school is the time consumption of it all and not the actual lessons. They're easy to understand once you read the book, but the stuff they make you read would take a normal human at least a full night's work to get it done by the next day for either a report or a quiz with barely 3 hours of sleep.

So sorry, that I couldn't exactly commit, but given my IRL status, I'm forced to put every hobby I do to the backburner until I come to it at a later date.


	9. Interlude: Convergence

Crossing the River Gates: The Rubicon's Flow

Interlude: Convergence

* * *

Wendy opened the door to exit her room with a happy note and a skip in her step. She had her own room in a rather large guild house/complex complete with everything that they needed for their leisure. She especially liked the bath houses that resided on the far corners of the guild house that separated male and female.

Since their first mission, Kakashi had purchased a large parcel of land just outside the city's outskirts. Since it was cheap, it helped them also. The guild house wasn't a problem since Yamato's Mokuton ability was such a useful ability in things like this. And they were well hidden. The design of the guild's house fit well within the forest. People would pass through here and none of them would be the wiser.

It had been a few months since their reunion and all of them had no time to rest as soon the missions began pouring coming from the council. Most of the time, it was just about enforcing the law of the Council. But whenever they had a chance to take down Dark Guilds, they always had strategic discussions before their encounter. All of them tended to participate to carry out their orders and to give out any comments if there was a glaring flaw in their plans. Most of the time, Shikamaru took over in command during their discussions and even Wendy and Charle participated in seeing what they were doing. Honestly, for the both of them, it seemed meticulous and boring on paper being as young as they were and all of the Ninjas around her understood her situation, for Wendy was a sheltered mage for most of her life and Cait Shelter only taught her the educational basics.

But Wendy was adored by everyone and she them. She liked being around Shizune and Sakura who taught her their styles of healing. She liked being with Lee, Kiba and Naruto for they were energetic and often times they were willing to play with her even though they were teenagers or train her how to protect herself even though she disliked fighting. They were fun to be around even Akamaru was willing to spend time with her much to the ire of her companion Charle.

She liked being around Hinata, Ino and Tenten whenever she wanted time to spend with the girls a bit older than her. Much to her surprise, she found Hinata as the same timid person that she was and couldn't help but to eventually warm up to her. She had found a kindred soul with Hinata and since then, they were like sisters in one way or another. Although she couldn't help but to notice that Hinata had both this motherly air around her and a maturity that she couldn't help but admire.

They were very much open to her the moment she went with them.

"You're family now, you helped us, and you fought with us. Comrades who stick together are like families. They don't have to bleed for each other, but they still do it because of one thing." Kiba mentioned this with a smile as he petted Akamaru on the head.

"And that's because we have this bond. We're bounded together by our difficulties, our ties, our emotions. People like Naruto view this bond as the source of their strength and maybe it was because of this that he has managed to come this far. Maybe he is right, but he didn't want to fail our trust in his drive."

The girls a little older than her told her it was love, the boys simply felt uncomfortable around the word, probably because they were never comfortable about being sappy. That is, except for Naruto, who just nodded with a grin as if there was something about that word that drove him to where he was.

"Adoration, admiration, recognition, sympathy and endearment, those are the things that Naruto has clung to for most of his life. From Iruka, he obtained sympathy and hope. From Kakashi and most of us, he obtained recognition. Adoration became the next thing and Hinata showed admiration towards him. But the closest endearment he had was during the times he spent with his master, Jiraiya. None of us could bond that way with him as close as to the man was. And it was a devastating blow when Naruto discovered his death. Perhaps it is one thing that we could never give Naruto as that of a grandfather spending time with his grandson, but nevertheless, we never thought less of him after that." Shino told her and Wendy soon realized why Naruto was such a person, different from everyone, like a shining diamond in a sea of rhinestones.

Naruto had no one in his younger days. He was born into the world as an orphan, a stray. He had confidence issues as much as Hinata but instead of being meek, he compensated and boasted. Shizune, Ino and Sakura told her once that it was called a defense mechanism.

"People tend to think the way in what they should perceive in themselves in order to remain mentally sound. All of us have them and they tend to reflect the behaviours that sprout from us whenever we have problems." Sakura told her, it was a simple lesson, but something that brought her to notice just how difficult it was to be a healer.

"Not all wounds are physical. It's complicated to explain it at your age, Wendy. But when you grow older you'll understand."

But it felt all too different when she was with Naruto. His cheerfulness was infectious. If he was happy, almost everyone would be. People were dragged around with the sway of his emotions. When he was upset, people notice. Wendy found Naruto like a brother for he had a certain way with kids even though he was rough, uncouth and unrefined as Charle commented.

"Nothing happens when people tend to judge based on first glance, you know. If you can't think that way about me, then it's tough, but I can't change what I am just to suit your requirements."

Naruto said those words with confidence. And Wendy thought that perhaps Naruto had ways of telling his answers differently that left people speechless. Charle was one of them.

As she walked through the hallway, she heard Naruto's age group discuss matters pertaining to a topic she had never heard them open up.

"You think that books like this should be kept secret to everyone." Shikamaru commented, flipping the pages of the deciphered words about magic.

"With the majority not being able to use it, it makes sense. I say we take this opportunity and try to learn what we can." Sakura mentioned as she sat down on one of the chairs in their conference room.

"I agree. Except for two people, all of us aren't Kage Level or even close to it. We know that Madara's already out there, but we can't take a chance with Sasuke. We've injured him before. But he has a bad habit of bouncing back and getting better than he was last time. I say we go for it." Neji mentioned this as he stood up. He knew this was their chance to catch up. Missions were not a problem. For a secretive group, their work mostly included logistics and law enforcement, something that could possibly dull their skills as Shinobi. But with this item in their hands, Neji could see new doors being opened for them.

'_Who's this Madara person?' _Wendy asked herself as she leaned in closer

"This isn't even up for discussion, we're doing this. No exceptions. It's high time we get close to Naruto's level. Everyone here is tired of being carried. Madara has the eight of the freaking bijuu and what do we have against him? A lone Jinchuuriki and a single Mangekyou Sharingan are all we got. Call me pessimistic, but with our current strength, we might as well hand over Naruto on a silver platter and get it over with." Kiba answered with his hands behind his head.

"I refuse to let that happen!"

That outburst all silenced them as Hinata was the one who stood up and slammed her hands on the table.

"I won't ever let them take him, even if it costs me my life!"

Everyone somewhat became amused at this. Seeing her sudden expression broth forth a smile from all of her friends, Hinata shrunk back down, blushing with all of her might.

"It's agreed then. We'll talk with Yamato-san once he gets back here. If Naruto wants to join our little training regimen, then it's better. Madara won't have any idea what hit him when we do manage to confront him." Shikamaru said this as they all went out of the conference room.

"Do you guys know what kind of magic you want to use, though?" Chouji asked and Tenten was the first to answer.

"I'm interested with Erza's style, a lot of weapons without carrying a scroll but the firearms here are very unique, I'm still practicing with the guns that Kiba and Ino brought from their mission as an additional payment. So far, my accuracy has been getting better and I think I'll be moving on from them and see what's more in store from the merchant those two escorted."

Many more murmurs were heard inside the room when they finally exited meeting face to face with Wendy.

Everyone stood in pause at this as they stared at the young girl who could only look a bit embarrassed.

"I guess you heard that, huh?" Shikamaru asked with a sigh and groaned when Wendy nodded.

"Alright, since many of your companions didn't tell you anything when they were with you and since the cat is out of the bag, we'll tell you everything you need to know."

* * *

Galuna Island:

Standing in all its crystallized glory, Reitei Lyon couldn't help but feel awed by the gigantic stature that was in front of him.

Months before, Lyon had noticed this disturbance that fell down on the land the moment when they were exposing the iced form of Deliora to the effects of the moondrip it disturbed his operation slightly but the form was simply too large not to miss. He had thought that the creature and person inside were encased in ice at first. But seeing as it gave off tremendous amounts of Magical Energy, it was more a Lacrima that was partially crystallized. This was something too powerful to be completely assimilated. And the person inside, he couldn't help but feel terrified of this man, perhaps much more than the intimidating statue with ten eyes. His arms were outstretched diagonally upward as if he was trying to reach out for something.

Lyon didn't mind however, as this was not target. His target was Deliora and he'd be damned if anyone took it away from him.

Up into the hands where the masked man stood, his red eye moved and silently watched as the Ice Mage turned his back from him and went away.

* * *

Interlude chapter since I had free time and classes were suspended for two days with the weekend fast approaching. I know, a miracle but it should be rare for me to do so until October comes (Sem Break!). Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you think!


	10. Changes

Crossing of the River Gates: The Rubicon's Flow

Chapter Nine: Changes

* * *

_Shikamaru's Journal, training progress:_

_For documentation's sake, I just had to write most of what we discovered about magic because from what we gathered of the book that Makarov gave us, it only gave the basic guides in the knowledge of magic._

_It was as helpful as chakra theory was back in school, in that we only managed to test the surface of it, not much going on with the more practical and advanced skills. We had to do that by trial and error, and there were more mistakes and repair costs coming from our pockets rather than achievements. But I have to say, even though most of it was troublesome, I found our successes to be more in leaps and bounds rather than baby steps._

_According to Makarov's book, magic is about the manipulation of outside forces and changing it to a type of skill you want it to be. Think of it as a specialization, if you will, in the same manner as Gai and Lee are to Taijutsu or how Kakashi and Yamato are with Ninjutsu. The same way as the basics of Shinobi abilities, magic is divided by three specializations; Holder, Caster and Lost Magic._

_Holder Magic requires there be an external source for the user to cast spells. It can be anything from a sword up to the tea set that Shizune likes to prepare for us. And depending for whatever use that the item gives, it usually has a specification for it doing the right job._

_Out of all of us who had an interest in this field, Tenten, Sai and surprisingly Neji spoke their interest in using them. Tenten and Sai, I found predictable since the former has been a weapon nut for most of her career and Sai was trained to handle a short sword as a close combat measure from ROOT. Neji, because in his reasoning, that combat abilities should be extended beyond that of traditional means in his family, and he thinks he can find that in using a weapon. Initially, we thought it was a problem because we needed a reliable merchant for that kind of stuff. But thanks to Kiba and Ino's former employer, we got ourselves a trustworthy weapons supplier._

_As an afterthought, Kiba thought it was funny that Shino join their roster. Shino took that joke seriously and is now a member of their group. I did not make that up. It seems like it isn't just Sai who has a problem socializing with other people._

_The next type of magic is Caster Magic. It's the expulsion of magic from our bodies without needing the aid of an item. Now, it doesn't mean that Caster is definitely superior to Holder, but Caster presents a much more versatile style and a large array of skills to learn from while Holder gives of an easier access to any specific magic that you want, it's a 'Right tool for the right job' kind of thing._

_Including myself, the people that took interest in this field are Hinata, Ino, Chouji, Lee and Kiba took this route for different reasons. For me, it was to see just how much I can improve my Shadow Manipulation and maybe see myself expand from there. But it doesn't mean that I will have to be locked in one type of magic. I think I just saw a very interesting magical set from that merchant we (or more precisely, Tenten) often frequent to._

_Ino said that she was interested in Genjutsu and even Illusion magic so no surprise there. Lee, I don't think anything can compliment his style. He relies much on his speed and close quarters combat. I don't think adding any long range combat in his style would be beneficial. He'd be better with Neji's group._

_Then I'll just have to trust in his judgement if this really is what he wants._

_For Kiba's reasoning, he says he wants to learn Mirajane's style of magic. Take Over isn't something I'm fond of. My first encounter with them is enough. But Kiba says he wants something more watered down and be able to combine with Akamaru along with another magic. If you ask me, he bonds with his dog too much. And he asks me why Naruto or I get a lot of women?_

_I wonder if that guy makes a day to day self reflection thinking about what was wrong with his life._

_Chouji's reasoning behind it is actually because he thinks he's better at improving something he already has expertise in and that he was never much of a weapon user. Understandable, since his most used weapon was the standard Kunai and Shuriken and that he wasn't like Neji who learns fast enough._

_Hinata, well, let's just say she has it bad for Naruto and she would do anything she can just to keep him safe. Her improvements are much more noticeable than many of us though and through a sense of both awe and dread, we discovered her preferred style is both destructive and supportive. It's versatile enough, but it can exceed to something much more almost borderline Lost Magic levels._

_Which brings me to the final and certainly not the last type of magic, it's Lost Magic. It's a type of magic that is as suggested, magic lost through the ages. Mostly purged from History because of their degree of difficulty and rarity, this type of magic is said to be the most superior of all magic types and pertains to abilities that are akin to Kekkei Genkai._

_Wendy's magic is said to be lost magic. At least, that's what I read. Her magic is called Ten no Metsuryu Maho (Sky Dragon Slayer Magic). Wendy claims that a dragon taught her the magic and I'm even more confused about it._

_Why would a dragon teach someone not of their species about magic that can kill dragons?_

_It's just one of the things that really got me scratching my head. But Wendy claims it all as true. Well, whatever. It's not like I would ever fully understand this whole situation in the first place._

_Among our ranks, I'd say Sakura takes this specialty because she and Shizune managed to break down the code of Dragon Slayer magic when they were with Wendy. Unknown to the poor girl, Sakura and Shizune had been studying her style of magic for several months up to a year and breaking it down to DNA levels. What that is, they wouldn't tell me. Sakura said to me that it was a secret and that she had just developed her own style of magic based from the studies she had obtained from Wendy and adapted to her own fighting style._

_It wouldn't surprise me if Sakura would be able to replicate Wendy's style of magic with a few tweaks._

_But Naruto, out of all of us, by far improved the most. He's grown a lot more controlled and more patient. Although he still shows signs of idiocy, he doesn't complain much anymore and has taken into fighting with a Wakizashi. That and he just learned Magic. What it is, he wouldn't tell me. But from what I can tell, that idiot somehow learned how to fly. I think that's an indication that he learned wind magic and that one of the abilities given by said magic is flight._

_Also, that idiot managed to get the attention of a local just a few weeks ago and told the local tabloids about a yellow forest deity roaming the forests outside of Onibus Town at night. What a headache that caused us! That idiot is lucky that Anko didn't skin him alive that day._

_An update to the last entry:_

_As an update on the information given last week, I've had to put the information of my friends' signature magic abilities because I need to memorize all of them and prepare for battle tactics that will be useful and who goes with who._

_Tenten's magic: Tenten's ability gives the most versatile form of magic I've ever seen…_

"Shikamaru, how much longer are you going to take staring at that journal of yours? We've already located one of the suspected members of the slave trafficking business here in Hargeon Town." His teammate admonished Shikamaru, who simply clicked his tongue in annoyance from his review being cut off.

"Alright, alright already, I'll be there in a sec!" Shikamaru replied earning another smart ass comment coming from his current teammate, "Be sure to have your napkins changed! I swear you can be worse than a woman sometimes!"

"Naruto, do you want to go there?"

The person now identified as Naruto, wearing his Kage attire went up and removed his mask to talk to Shikamaru.

"That's because you aren't the one who's going to catch this guy red handed! You think its fine that I have to turn into a girl just so that he could probably kiss me?" Naruto retched at his own statement before giving Shikamaru a glare.

"Hey, I would have volunteered… If I could change into a girl and have the same experience as you do."

Naruto glared at Shikamaru, simply giving him a mocking smirk knowing full well what Shikamaru was getting at.

"Fuck you, Shikamaru! That didn't happen!" Naruto exclaimed earning a chuckle from the strategist before he stormed out of the pineapple head's room and back down to the inn's lobby. Chouji came back from the bathroom and noticed Naruto storming down, seeing Shikamaru, the chubby boy asked, "What was that?"

Shikamaru merely gave an off handed reply, "It was nothing. Ready for that big raid later tonight, pal?"

Chouji nodded, "Yeah. I think I'm just about done with what I need. You're about to change?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"Alright, just let me inform Yamato-taichou that we're about to place in the bait."

Shikamaru stood up and put on his utility belt over his black pants and a black long sleeved button jacket with a white mane on the edge of the hood. He donned the black leather gloves that were lying neatly by the desk and wore his Nue mask to hide his face.

With a check of his current Ningu, Shikamaru jumped out of the window and landed lithely on the roof next to the inn.

'_Now let's see if those guys take the bait.'_

The council had issued another mission to them, an investigation and possibly an apprehension of a rumoured human trafficking operation. Trying to take them down wasn't the problem. It was weeding them out and exposing them. Because these guys didn't have a normal schedule so that it was more difficult to track them, the operation was subtle enough that the entire population of Hargeon Town were none the wiser. Sure there were rumors going about, but they were disregarded mostly because the targets were foreigners to the town. The searches made by the local authorities always end up a dead end because not only were the targets younger women, they were younger women who visit the town which meant that there were little to no witnesses or reports.

At least, that was part of the official report that concerned the townspeople. He had Chouji and some others to investigate the town itself and had an inkling suspicion that the slave traders had some sort of connection with the local authorities if they had managed to continue this long.

As a way to bring out the culprits, Shikamaru had Naruto transform into a girl and roam around town in the same erratic manner and have some pray that they encounter their targets. He could have asked Kiba, Neji or Shino's help in this case, but they were too busy with another mission that involved taking care of an infestation just north of Era.

Hinata was automatically ruled out since she could become a likely target, and they had to take more precautionary measures than necessary if it were so.

So far, it's been two weeks since they last did this mission and even though they were making slight progresses on the patterns that they had been doing (Placing clone outposts on every corner of the city) and planting bugs and spies to wherever they knew it was suspicious, the progress was too slow for his liking.

They were cornering the group and they knew it. It was only a matter of time now before they would be making a huge discovery with this mission and today was the day. Or at least, he hoped it was.

* * *

Earlier in Hargeon Town:

Lucy Heartfilia walked around the bustling and lively city that was Hargeon. She had heard of a merchant managing to obtain an item of her interest and she was determined to get it as soon as she sees it!

Turning to a corner, her world spun around as she bumped into something, tearing the wind out of her lungs and falling down to the stone cobbled floor butt first. She groaned from the blunt force of the impact and rubbed her temples from the nauseous event and finally apologized to the one who she bumped into.

"I'm sorry for bumping into you!" She said in a panic. She had thought that the person she had crashed on was male, it having the consistency of a stone wall, but was surprised when she heard the voice.

"Ow! Damn it, I almost hit my head on the streetlight!"

Well, it may not be a masculine voice, but it sure did have a masculine way of speaking. Also, the girl right in front of her was showing her panties to the world while she was rubbing her head.

"Ah! Cover yourself, please! I could see your panties!"

The girl, now she could identify as the same cute blonde but with twin pigtails and azure eyes with the most prominent features being her exotic whisker marks on her cheeks and wearing a light blue Yukata, looked on in observation and gave a small laugh at it. She looked a _little _embarrassed at this and said, "I guess I am showing it, huh?"

Not only was this person speaking like a man, he was behaving like one as well!

"Uh… Come on let's just go before a lot more people see us." Lucy suggested in discomfort as she was now fully aware that some of the men around them were now staring at the other blonde. Granted, flashing them her underwear would get them to stare long enough that would either grant them a nosebleed or simply blush. But somehow, the girl either didn't care or loved the attention.

Lucy hoped it was the former rather than the latter.

When they were far enough, Lucy held out her hand and apologized yet again, "Sorry about that, I put you in an embarrassing position! I shouldn't have shouted about you flashing your panties!"

The girl simply patted her on the shoulder and reassured her as if she didn't mind it all along, "Ah don't worry about it. It wasn't on purpose anyway."

Lucy breathed out a sigh of relief as the girl in front of her gave her a grin. The Heartfilia heiress gave off a smile of her own, noting that this woman's smiles were infectious.

"My name is Lucy Heartfilia, what's yours?"

The girl looked hesitant for a moment before doing a double take when she introduced herself, "You can just call me Naru."

Lucy had to scratch her head at the weird introduction that Naru had told her. Was she cautious about something?

"Anyway, what are you doing here, Lucy?" Naru asked, obviously curious.

"Well, I just got word that there is a special item here that's taken my interest. I'm a mage, you see and I'm looking for one of the golden celestial keys." She said this and held out her keychain that housed all of her celestial keys.

But Naru, leaving everything else to the side, was all over Lucy with bright eyes as she said, "You're a mage? That's so cool!"

Lucy swelled a little bit with pride that someone was admiring her for her being a mage, even if technically, she hadn't done anything yet to be a famous mage. But she had to remind herself.

'_Baby steps…'_

Lucy thought to herself as Naru looked at her keys with a certain glimmer in her eyes.

"Wow, you like magic, too?" Lucy asked while Naru furiously nodded. It was then that Lucy had noted that Naru can be a bit of a ditz.

As they walked around town and began discussing magic, Lucy had noticed that Naru may be a bit of a ditz, but she sure knew her way around the town like it was no one's business. That and she occasionally glanced side to side when Lucy thought she wasn't paying attention as if Naru herself was looking for something suspicious.

When they had managed to find the shop she was looking for, Lucy sighed in disappointment since this was the only shop that had magical items for sale. Naru seemingly looked around as if she was a kid in a toy store, impressed and absolutely giddy.

"Oh, looks like the young miss is enjoying my wares!" The merchant jovially announced but as soon as he said those words, Naru's excitement suddenly turned to boredom.

"What the hell? I thought I'd see more magic swords and weapons. Not this color magic bullshit."

Naru suddenly looked disappointed too. That is, until Lucy had found what she was looking for. It was one of the keys that she had been hearing of. But instead of the gold keys that Lucy described, this one was silver.

"Say, mister, how much is it for the key?" Lucy said as she leaned her torso just a little closer to the counter, slightly showing some skin.

"Twenty-thousand jewels." The man said as straight as possible without a hint of hesitation in his voice. Lucy, accentuating her curves, leaned in much closer and exposed her chest a little more.

"No, no, you misunderstood. I said, 'how much is it for this key?'"

By the time the merchant was about to name his price, Naru had just accidentally hit a magical item that transformed her clothes.

Smoke billowed all around her as her Yukata was transformed into a sexy devil girl's outfit, complete with leather gloves, thigh high skin tight stiletto boots, cute little devil wings and horns and a lacy one piece swimsuit.

Lucy's jaw dropped at how much of a bombshell Naru was who was looking down at her own figure while the merchant was simply drooling.

"F-F-FIVE THOUSAND JEWELS ON THE KEY!"

_**Cha-ching!**_

They exited the store premises without many problems except that Lucy was feeling a little inadequate now that she was around Naru.

"My sex appeal can only go as high as a thousand jewels…" She said in a depressed town with her head hanging low all the while staring at Naru who looked like she was nervously laughing.

"If it makes you feel better, Lucy, a thousand jewels is a lot." Naru said trying to make Lucy feel better, but it coming off from the lady that got a fifteen thousand jewel discount, she wasn't feeling that swell today.

"Coming from you, that's nothing." Lucy mentioned while Naru gave an embellished laugh once more.

Once they turned to the corner of the street, they saw a lot of girls clamouring to one direction. They turned to the place where the commotion was about and quickly noticed a man was standing in the middle of the crowd of girls.

He was wearing a rather flamboyant set of clothing, black pants and shoes, a white long sleeved shirt and a long black cape swaying with the wind as he walked. He walked with a confident smile, and a rather flamboyant way of speaking. Needless to say, a lot of the women around him were smitten with his somewhat boyish good looks.

Naru tilted her head in confusion. They were clamouring over this guy? He didn't even look that much. Naru was about to grab Lucy from her side but saw the girl love stricken as well. Naru sighed as she was about to drive her out of her funk when she heard someone from the crowd come over and shout something.

"IGNEEL!"

And the sound of a boisterous youth charged his way towards where they were, making his way to the crowd and squeezing around women, came a pink haired boy with a blue bipedal cat and looking as if he had found a treasure trove.

"IGNEEL!"

He shouted once more, until he snuck from below ignoring the women who were yelling in surprise and finally shouting from below,

"IGNEEL!"

The sudden surprise coming from the boy snapped Lucy out of her trance.

His smile suddenly changed to confusion upon seeing the man's face. Instead of excitement, the pink haired boy suddenly asked rather rudely, "Who the hell are you?"

The man stepped back a little but regained his composure once more. He cupped his chin with a confident smile as he said to the boy, "You'll probably know me as, Salamander."

"Nope, sorry, you're not him." The boy suddenly turned his back on the man and left. The man's charisma had no effect on the boy.

This had the unforeseen consequence of the man's fan club beating the crap out of the boy as he crumpled to the ground below.

After another display of his fire magic, Salamander excused himself from the crowd to talk about something in the docks before vanishing in a rise of flames but not without sending invites to a party at a cruise ship.

"Man, that dude was annoying." Naru commented subtly with Lucy looking disdainfully as Naru poked the twitching boy.

"Hey, you okay?" Naru asked and noticed that the boy had the resiliency of a cockroach when he got up, somehow, seeing the boy get beat up like that by a crowd of hormonally charged females made Naru shudder in fear.

"That guy disgusts me." To this, Lucy turned to the pink haired youth and gave her gratitude, "Thanks by the way." And she shuddered once more all the while the pink haired boy and Naru stared at her curiously.

"What are you talking about?" Naru asked and Lucy looked incredulous.

"Don't tell me you weren't affected by his charm magic. You saw what happened!" Lucy commented and Naru scratched her cheek and thought back for a moment before giving a reply with a grin, "Nope, didn't feel a thing!"

"Wait, what? How come you aren't affected? It's either you're a guy or you were aware that he was casting it!" Lucy said and Naru simply grinned sheepishly, "Well… I don't know that happened but I sure am glad I wasn't affected!"

Lucy suddenly backed down a little as her spine crawled up and down, "Naru, don't tell me you swing _that_ way!"

She didn't know Charm magic was also ineffective to girls who had different… Preferences, if you will.

Meanwhile, Naru simply looked at Lucy as if she was going to neither confirm nor deny Lucy's statement.

Maybe it was why Naru can be boyish in attitude even though she looked so cute. Lucy gave a sigh, today was full of close shaves and disappointments on her part. Besides, she still had to repay both Naru and the pink haired boy for their company and their help, respectively.

It was then that Naru had to decline Lucy's offer as she had to go. But before Naru left, she advised Lucy.

"Be careful later, Lucy. I saw that guy earlier had his eye on you." And with that, Naru ran and disappeared from Lucy's view.

*Cue scene with Shikamaru*

* * *

Later that night:

The trap was set. Naruto had successfully made his way inside the party while he (Shikamaru), Chouji, Yamato and Sai had made their way inside due to Naruto's infiltration and knocking out specific low grunt targets. Tonight was their perfect chance. With this big haul, they can put a major bust into their operations. Two weeks worth of investigations finally paid off.

As they were surveying the area, Naruto couldn't help but notice that his warning was completely ignored by the girl he had managed to talk to earlier. Now she was in the party/trap laid by these scum of society and he had a wary feeling that the mission was about to get more dangerous.

Then, it happened. The pink haired boy figuratively and literally crashed the party just in the middle of the guy claiming himself to be the Salamander of Fairy Tail breaking Lucy's spirits. It was an entertaining sight and seeing the pink haired mage's rage whittle down as the tides churned the boat sideways made him nauseous and therefore, sick, Naruto had to let a small chuckle escape his lips.

Seeing as the mage from Fairy Tail was down, Naruto took a step forward and dispelled his henge.

'_About damn time we do this!'_ Naruto thought as he walked away from the billowing smoke, and Naru's image was changed to that of a more intimidating person, punching one guy straight at the face and elbowing another, breaking the man's teeth before going for a vicious uppercut that sent the man sailing outside the boat and into the cold ocean waters.

"What now?" The man claiming himself to be the Salamander asked as he heard one of his comrades was just painfully sent sailing outside the ship.

It was then that the masked man stood on the ceiling and gave an amused and menacing wave.

"**Hi." **

The man stiffened, he glanced to the wooden ceiling up above and saw a person wearing a white mask with a blue streak in the middle looking down at him with a black and hollow expression.

A feeling of dread and fear escaped his being. That man's casual wave at him made him feel uncomfortable. It was as if something beneath that gesture told him that the person had meant more to it than those two simple letters.

The man with the faceless mask then disappeared from his view in a flash and reappeared just to the side of one of the fake Salamander's comrades and gave a vicious straight punch right before disappearing and reappearing once again to one of his men, this time, it was a straight flying kick straight to the thug's chest, nailing the poor sap to the ship's wall causing a minor stir.

Lucy watched in fascination, as this man with the faceless mask was beating up people around the ship frantically while Natsu was still feeling the effects of his seasickness, she then noticed several more people jumping into the scene. And like the person creating havoc all around the ship, these people wore the same porcelain white mask. But this time, the masks had different designs that she couldn't quite figure out.

"Murakumo surely loves loosening up, doesn't he?" Asked the rather husky man with the long mane for a hair that wore the traditional red Samurai armor complete with scaled armor to the side of his thighs and arm guards and to top it off, horns placed on his helmet that have the same scaled design to its side.

"I think it's because his frustrations of being a girl earlier were welling up and he couldn't exactly hit Nue, Oni." The other one, wearing white chest armor over a long sleeved black shirt just reaching to his upper thigh with the same black colored pants and bandages on his forearm and legs, to his back was a handle to what Lucy could tell as a short sword.

"For the last time, Kappa, he's the only one who could pull it off, aside from the fact that he's busted multiple perverts with that form right, Tengu-taichou?" The one with the Nue mask said as he dug through his ninja pouch and pulled out three shuriken and flinging it lazily to one of their targets and pinned him to the wall.

The one with the teal green kimono and dark green sleeveless haori that reached just to his lower torso looked hesitant and tapped his getta sandals on the wooden floor before answering,

"I don't want to answer that question." The one with the Tengu mask replied. It was at that instant that all four of them moved and began their assault on the enemy.

Nue, pulled out the trench knives that his master had left behind. It was such a convenience that not only was the weapon capable of being a conduit for chakra; it was also a good conductor for magic. This discovery wasn't easy though when they were studying magic. It literally was only by accident that he saw the compatibility and Nue had to hit himself on the forehead when he had soon realized that chakra and magic were, in essence, a basic composition of malleable energy. It was to which he had studied and looked for a way to incorporate his style with the current magic. He had to recall most of their teacher's basic moves only by memory and although he wasn't as physical as Asuma was, Nue had more than enough skill and tactics to employ his usage of the trench knives.

His shadow gripped the trench knives and began crawling and creating a formless blade that matched the knives' shape to its edge by almost twice as long. Nue then began slashing down enemies left and right with his usage of the blade. It was thanks to their guild master, Panda and Kappa that he was a little bit more proficient in the art of armed combat although he wasn't as good as those three are in the field, he could probably give a common thug a run for their money.

Nue continued to cut down his opponents and turned to his side, and saw Kappa handling the short sword and a long azure one as if he had been holding it all his life. To make matters worst, Kappa held the short Wakizashi like blade in a reverse grip. Something that seemed very difficult to do when holding a sword as it tended to mess up swings and blade placements.

Nue didn't know why, but he was sure that Kappa somehow found some sort of pleasure in cutting down his enemies as evidenced by the fact that he was taking them down with not only the finesse of a seasoned swordsman, but also the efficiency and the dexterity in which he does, a product of his training from his former benefactor, no doubt.

To the farther side, he saw Oni and Murakumo doing what they do best and it was to cause havoc. Both of them were smashing faces with either brute force or unmatched speed. To Murakumo, it was the latter as said person not only honed himself in the way of magic, but also gained a respectable amount of speed that almost matched a de-weighted Lee while Oni pummelled with literally the strength of a giant and kept sending people literally _through _the wall and landing on the cold sea water outside.

All this occurred as Tengu simply watched his subordinates work. It was then that he felt a sudden churning of the ship.

In the midst of the chaos, Happy, Natsu's flying-talking blue cat, carried Lucy overhead and both were unceremoniously dropped on to the cold waters below.

Lucy, out of wanting to pay her abductors back, grabbed one of her golden keys summoned her magic.

"Open the gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!"

And at her command, a magic circle had appeared just in front of the key that she was holding. The Magic circle expanded and its rotation stopped. Out of the middle of the circle appeared a blue haired beauty only matched by her grace, her beautiful alabaster skin reflected in the moonlit waters of the ocean as her seemingly elegant form spoke to Lucy, "You better have a damn good reason to summon me here while I was having a nice date with my boyfriend, you wench."

Lucy was held back when her eyes changed from that of elegance to a very dangerous and enraged one.

Lucy had to stutter in her speech but still, she had to show to her summoner just who was boss around here! "A-Alright, Aquarius, Aim for that big ship over there, and send that thing crashing to the port!"

Aquarius looked like she was about to obey that order and Lucy looked pleased for a moment…

Until she realized she was in Aquarius' line of fire as well.

Lucy was sent flying from her area along with Happy towards the Port. Despite the torrential wave that she was experiencing right now, she could hear the thunderous crash of the ship just where she expected it to be, at the port.

Inside the ship, the five members of Kage didn't even look like they were dishevelled by the sudden turbulence that occurred within the boat. Murakumo looked around, seeing as some of the men, still unscathed, got up with the world still spinning in their vision. The resulting event, however, not only forced them to dry land, it also relieved a previously motion sick Natsu, who looked about as energized and as he was before he crashed the party, and the gleam and intensity of his eyes showed forth a menace that the crew had just realized.

They were facing Rage incarnate.

"Bastard, I'm a member of the guild Fairy Tail and I haven't seen that mug before!"

Fire soon erupted from his hands and blazed forth like a solar flare, "Bastards like you who shame our name deserves a beating worse than any other!"

Nue noted immediately as he signalled for Tengu to create a wooden barrier, preferably, one sturdy enough to withstand the force of a Rasengan fully powered.

"This…Probably won't end well." Murakumo commented, earning a look from Nue.

"Let's just get out of here and hope that Tengu's barrier holds up from the incoming onslaught." Nue mentioned but Kappa simply mentioned flatly, "Too late, Nue."

With that, they saw the man impersonating the Salamander sent flying like a missile outside the ship and crashing on to the wooden wall that Yamato had created. Well, it was sturdy alright, right before crumbling from the impact reaching down below into the ground.

"The council is not going to like the fact that the port is destroyed." Oni muttered, earning a glare from Murakumo.

"Not our fault, he crashed the party, remember?" Murakumo pointed down towards an enraged Fire Dragon Slayer that just socked a completely helpless Bora straight to the face with a flame powered fist and then sent sailing from the ship, bursting through the wooden Barrier that Tengu had made and slamming just above the clock tower's watch.

Nue shook his head and gave a sigh, "That's the kid we know from two years ago. Looks like nothing changed when we left."

Murakumo simply looked entertained beneath his mask as he watched the now identified Natsu Dragneel, the Real Salamander; thrash about at the destroyed ship and port.

"You know that guy?" Murakumo asked while Nue turned away from his teammate.

"Kind of… We've done jobs with him in the past. He's just like you, walks in head first in a fight with shuriken flying. He also gets beaten up by Ouka when he doesn't listen or he does something boneheaded. Kind of reminds you of someone, doesn't it?" Nue spoke those words with a hint of amusement.

"I wasn't that bad, was I?" Murakumo asked, all four of them replied at the same time, "Yes, you were."

"Though you're not as bad back then, dickless, Ouka still beats you up for being stupid at times."

"You know I'm tempted to stab you right now, Kappa."

"Save that for another time, the fuzz are here and I'm sure we don't want to get in anymore trouble than we already are."

"I blame your laziness." Murakumo commented before disappearing from view

"And I blame your meddlesome attitude." Nue retorted back as all five of them left without as much as a trace.

* * *

Era Magic Council:

The center of magic has always been one to impress Haiirogami (Grey Wolf), ever in its elegant and exquisite walls and articulated pillars; it put the architecture of almost all the nations of his homeland to shame.

He could tell that the council were fond of the arts. Just looking at the statues, the paintings and even the chiselled designs of the roof were meant that these people either valued the arts for its aesthetic purposes or they just had too much time on their hands.

Once Haiirogami had reached the main chambers itself, he could hear the muffled mumblings and murmurs coming out of the old men and women who were discussing likely the current politics.

'_Typical for men of their age.'_

He commented as he walked towards the center of the council chambers, a document folder in hand.

"Haiirogami, what is your report in Hargeon Town?" One member of the council asked, almost demandingly, Kakashi complied well on his own.

"We've managed to put a stop to the slave trading business or at least, cripple the majority of it. It was a big haul that night and we think that we've busted their major mode of operation. We believe that it lasted for several months but we couldn't be sure. If that were the case then it is within reasonable suspicion that some of the operatives there had connections to their local government, perhaps more." The masked leader of Kage mentioned as he placed the folder on the podium that was in the middle.

"In light of this, the mission has been completed with little to no property damage, but the problem would still probably exist. We have captured one of their primary members, Bora, a former member of the guild Titan Nose. With your permission, we would do some means of 'extracting' information to trace the ones who would be involved in this business. With Bora's prominence over the whole operation, he must probably know a lot. However, be advised that in getting that information, we will obtain it at our own discretion; our job, our rules."

To this, some of the councilmen looked uneasy and the look of uncertainty circled around them. The youngest of the councilmen, Sieglein, was leaning to his table forward and asked the leader of the council funded guild,

"Shouldn't you add anything to that, Haiirogami?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this beneath his mask.

"I don't understand, honourable councilman, what is there more to add?"

"Oh, that the port of Hargeon was destroyed and a part of the clock tower was ruined. Didn't you know?" Seiglein asked as a grin escaped from his lips while the leader of Kage remained silent for a second before answering back.

"I have read the mission report, Councilman Seiglein, and though it is very unfortunate and the damage is wide scale, I assure you that my people are disciplined enough to not let something like that happen in a highly populated area."

'_At least I hope not.' _Kakashi muttered this to himself. Seiglein simply grinned and looked over to his co-members and to his subordinate, the lovely Ultear.

"Well, that's that for me, then. Anymore of you wish to continue this interrogation?" Seiglein asked. A member of the council, much, much older than Seiglein replied,

"Hmph, insouciant brat, I find that your lack of interest in the matters of administrating and regulating guilds not amusing. You are proving far more incompetent than I could imagine, Kage. Where it not for the fact that your credential only speak well for your guild now, I would have voted to stop funding your little organization." Said the other member in disdain, some of the members nodded to what the man was saying.

"I'm sorry but your group made a miscalculation in trying to keep Fairy Tail out of the equation. An occurrence that is nuisance to us almost every week, was it not in your calculations, Haiirogami?"

Kakashi shook his head, "None that I know of, honourable councilman, we make it a policy that we have minimal interaction outside the council unless we are tasked upon. Fairy Tail, if I remember correctly, was not within our mission parameters when we obtained the order for the mission or expected a member of the guild to show up."

He knew what this was, this was politics. For every positive, people will always find something to bore holes in. This is just one of them. It wasn't just their guild at stake here; it was probably also the people behind who would support their idea. After all, not all of see each other eye to eye.

"I disagree with that statement because their presence has been a big help in maintaining order and tipping the scales in our war against the dark guilds. Without them, our progress would be nothing. Already there are reports coming from different towns that Dark Guilds are collapsing one by one. It would be only a little more and the Balaam Alliance would be crippled. It would only be a matter of time until one of the Dark Guilds start to act. And dare I say it, would search for the ones who would dare to challenge them."

It was at this time that Seiglein spoke, "Which, in all cases probably won't work since there has been no indication or word sent that we are doing a pre-emptive strike, yet. Is that what it is councilman?"

"Yes, the more we look clean to the public, the less conspicuous we become. Let the small conspiracy theories rattle out in the streets. But there will be nothing that the Balaam Alliance can pin on us even if they DO begin some sort of Counter-Offensive. A little mistake is but a small cost if we are to maintain peace here in Fiore."

"It is but wishful thinking if you believe that the Balaam Alliance would yield to such acts of treachery, councilman. But be wary, the Balaam Alliance would most likely consider retaliation with most likely the Oracion Seis leading the front."

"Precisely the point, if we continue playing with fire then we will eventually be burned! You want us to suffer and be tossed to the dogs just because of a tiny group that will most likely churn the alliance? This council is but one organization against three guilds filled with S-Class Mages or worse, dark magic!"

"ENOUGH!" The eldest of the member said before slamming down his staff on the ground.

"We have seen and heard enough. Kage, in a short span of two years, you have given your services well. Unlike many of the guilds today, you show efficiency and professionalism in what you do. With regards to the Balaam Alliance, it is inevitable in the end. Why not hasten up the process? With this, the stir in the Balaam Alliance will force them to draw closer to us." One of the members, who looked like he had the highest authority within the room, spoke.

"Not only that, they managed to clean out the weeds placed in different towns. I admit that we are spending much on this guild, but the investment is worth it if they can detect and locate under the table dealings and stabilizing any town under a crime lord's thumb. The confusion in the Dark Guilds is just a bonus."

"The pros outweigh the cons with their involvement. No matter what each of you see, spending on this guild is a small price to pay in eradicating those that would follow Zeref's ways. We need not to dirty our hands if necessary. With that in mind…" The eldest then pointed to Kakashi, "Your guild, Kage, shall continue to receive monetary aide from us, but be warned, so much as our involvement be heard in your operations then we will halt any further dealings with you and deny you. Your existence shall be exposed to the public and we will wipe away any form of interaction about you."

Kakashi noted, "It is duly noted, councilman. As per our terms two years ago, we will make sure that any form of your involvement will be held secret. I only ask that you do the same."

Kakashi looked at every council member and stared longer at Seiglein. Kakashi, for as long as he had been summoned in these chambers, knew Seiglein the least. For a while he had thought the boy was just someone filling for his parent since he never saw him during his trial and was absent when he was given their first mission. Something told Kakashi that trusting this man was close to suicide. There were too many things that Seiglein represented that were sending alarm bells ringing in Kakashi's head. As they say, be wary to those who are forthcoming.

Years of experience taught him that.

As the meeting drew to a close, Kakashi excused himself from the room and exited curtly. Once outside, the masked guild master gave a sigh and put his hands in his pockets.

... And flicked a kunai just past his stalker and embedding to the wall just behind her.

"Ultear, you of all people should know about sneak around a guild master. It would be unfortunate if you suffered an... Accident of some sort." The gray haired ninja mentioned, careful of his wording to Seiglein's subordinate.

Ultear gave a soft laugh, more amused than threatened, "My, my, the master has fully honed senses. It would be wise for this one to tread likely. I wonder if any of your subordinates are able to do that as well."

Kakashi grabbed the kunai from the wall and pocketed it to his pouch all the while saying, "My subordinates are fully capable. Of that I assure you. Now, what it is your agenda that you came here to talk to me?"

Ultear smiled, "Haiirogami, you wound me. Is it unusual to be curious around an employee of the council that neither Seiglein-sama nor I have heard of?"

"Your boss was absent when we were recognized. I think it's his fault for not paying enough attention." Kakashi admonished as he walked away.

Urtear had to admit, that much was true, but she was willing to believe that even the rest of the members of the council knew as much as them.

A smile escaped from her lips as she watched Kakashi vanishing from her sight.

"Have you obtained anything, Ultear?" Seiglein asked appearing from the shadows.

The female mage shook her head, "He's terribly distrusting to us. He finds us dangerous and problematic."

Seiglein simply leaned back in his chair and gave an amused smile, "That's funny. I thought the same to him and his group. I guess great minds do think alike in this case. Don't you think so, Tenko?"

Seiglein turned to the man leaning at one of the pillars, hidden from Urtear's view. He was wearing a long, darker version of Seiglein's coat along but with a hood over dark pants and shoes. His chokuto was strapped on his side so he could draw it quicker and his arms were a mismatch of steel and flesh, his left arm, instead of warm skin was cold steel that reached up to his elbow. Along with the artificial arm were pads of iron that acted as covering over the metal wiring and cylinders beneath.

His hair, ebony and wild, stretching at the back of his head, taking the shape of a hawk, stood perfectly tamed to him despite the rustling wind. He had the facial features of a handsome man but marred by his look of apathy. He gazed at Seiglein, even though he was somewhat grateful at the man, he was still annoyed that the shrewd mage would give him a name of a girl, or possibly, a pet.

"Why must you insist that name for me? Taka would have been fine." He said, although he didn't show it, he was clearly annoyed.

"Now, now, Tenko, I found you. As such, think of me as your father christening that name to you. Besides, don't you think it's cute?" Seiglein asked with a smile annoying Tenko even more.

"It's humiliating. Not only is it a girl's name, it could also be given as a name to a pet. And I am not your pet, Seiglein." He said as the man merely laughed at Tenko's demands.

"Ah but you aren't, Tenko. It just so happens that you couldn't remember your name or where you came from. What was I supposed to do? I could have called you Mr. Freeloader and be done with it."

Somehow, that nickname would have been worse. Tenko simply grumbled in annoyance and simply accepted Seiglein's name for him.

"Good! See? I have a heart to even name you like that! Now that Mr. Brooding has been dealt with, I'd like to have a task done by you, Tenko."

Tenko raised an eyebrow at this as Seiglein grinned, seeing the man's curiosity.

"There's this Dark Guild called Death's Head Caucus. In their ranks are three of their most powerful members. They are the Trinity Raven. I want you to confront them and make them join my side." Seiglein gave Tenko the instructions as the ebony haired boy read the direction on how to get there as well as the descriptions of the group that Seiglein was pointing.

'_A talking man sized owl riding a jetpack, what the hell is this?'_ Tenko scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Why are you giving me this assignment? What is this for?"

To this, Seiglein's smile turned menacing, as his eyes grew sharper. He asked Tenko, "Have you ever heard of something called the Tower of Heaven?"

To Be Continued…

* * *

Well, here it is, a reintroduction at some of the casts two years have past and we know move on to the timeline of the pre-time skip Fairy Tail. As such, even though this time skip coincides with the main story line, Kage will not be involved much with the story of Natsu and Friends until much, much later. They will have their own storyline until Phantom Lord and Oracion Seis. Sasuke will be involved with the Tower of Heaven arc although as a minor character with not much impact into the story itself until the events of Oracion Seis AND Edolas.

Madara will be much longer; he will make his appearance and act much later than the rest as he is the last obstacle of the Naruto cast. He will play a bigger role in the future and his presence (or not) in Deliora Arc will be close to non-existent as such, I will not be writing that particular story as well as the arc that follows it but instead, it would only be references to what happened.

Regarding Sasuke's memory loss, yes, I know, some of you may hate it. But do remember that even though Sasuke's turned into a Psycho in the manga, I needed him to be saddled with one of the cast in Fairy Tail to get the ball rolling with him. He will, in due time, discover his past _gradually _as he has encounters with the members of Kage. The memories and encounters will be small, almost minute details, but eventually (with the wonders of character development) this will place Sasuke in a different light than right now.

I know you're all dying right now just what kind of stuff that the crew has learned (along with Sasuke) in the span of the time skip but I think I'll keep it to myself, unless if you ask me nicely, I can give you some of the concepts that I've laid out and figure it out for yourself or I could just leave it altogether and reveal it by the time I feel like telling you. I've given you a taste with Naruto's with this chapter as well as Shikamaru's.

Also, for those who are confused just to who's who in our masked brigade, here's the list of the people I've revealed:

Murakumo- Naruto

Haiirogami- Kakashi

Kurohebi- Anko

Byakko- Gai

Nue- Shikamaru

Tengu- Yamato

Kappa- Sai

Chouji- Oni

And as for reference placed in here:

Panda- Tenten (I swear to God, Panda has no Japanese name except for, well, panda. Kuma would be good but I think Panda fits better for Tenten.)

Ouka- Sakura (Ouka is actually another name for Cherry Blossoms, but I guess some of you already know that.)

Keep track, everyone. As every chapter I reveal a character and codename, I'll update this list and by next chapter, there's a reveal on some of the magic that some Shinobi have learned.

With all that I DEMAND THAT YOU LEAVE A REVIEW! RAWR!


	11. The Fruits of Labor

Crossing the River Gates

Chapter Eleven: The Fruits of Labor

_I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents_

**-Pablo Picasso**

* * *

"What's your current status, Panda?"

Static entered her ears as the girl with the panda mask wearing a vest, above her long baby blue sleeved shirt, a pair of black fingerless gloves, short bicycle shorts, knee high leather boots and a short scarf underneath her brown poncho replied, "Nothing too unusual. The members aren't suspecting us yet, although I think it's just a matter of time before they catch up to what we do."

Panda turned her head to her right and saw one of the guild members passing by her while she remained still before continuing her surveillance.

In a matter of two years, they had come to be known as the guild without face. They had managed to creep into the underworld as rumors that made many of the dark guilds shudder in fear. Kage, although non-existent to many of the eyes of the people, became the nameless (to many at least) guild to become the bogeyman of low to middle class dark guilds. And though they are still no closer into achieving their goal, Panda had to admit, the missions being presented to them were more often than not, exciting in her mind.

"Make sure you keep your presence to a minimum. This mission requires the utmost delicacy and subtlety to pull it off."

"HEAR THE ROAR OF MY YOUTH!"

**CRASH!**

"That better not be what I think it is." The voice replied as Panda felt like smashing her face into the wall. With a defeated sigh, Panda replied, "I'll check it out, Suzaku."

The scream of a man, who was most likely knocked out with a blunt object, soon came after that battle cry. Panda had to rush to her teammate's position as she gathered magic to her hands, the energy making a strange yet familiar feeling to her as she gathered it to a point into nothing but thin air.

"The Gunslinger: Wasp and Hornet!"

Two objects materialized in her gloved hands, the light of magic slowly dissipating as it traced two hand carried firearms into her hands. They were small, with their length not even longer than her forearm, coloured black and gold, alternating between the two weapons. Whereas Hornet, the gun placed on Panda's right hand are gold at the slide, black at the muzzle and barrel, and gold at the grip, Wasp, in her left hand, was the exact opposite, a black slide, golden muzzle and barrel, and black at its grip.

To her, the noise that these handguns gave off was incomparable now to how fast they could connect at her target. Panda charged through the wooden door with her shoulder and the object splintered and shattered down on the ground as she charged through. With reflexes honed by her training and experience, her arms were already aiming at her targets.

It was like watching things in slow motion as she targeted her opponents as her eyes darted left and right for them.

'_Ten enemies, I can take these guys down six seconds flat.'_Panda thought to herself as she pulled the trigger from Hornet and Wasp simultaneously.

**BANG!**

**BANG!**

Two opponents fell down in a split second as Panda was immediate to turn sideways with her excellent footwork and brought down two more.

Sensing an opponent behind her, Panda smacked the poor unsuspecting thug by his right shoulder with the butt of Hornet and used him as leverage to pull off a high back flip in the air and peppering the man with a hail of non-lethal magical bullets at his back and all the way down to his lower torso.

With a twist of her body, Panda spun in midair, sideways this time, and firing her weapons sideways also, taking out two more in her sights. She landed gracefully on the ground, her poncho billowing and flowing from her every movement before it overlapped her again and her ducking from the sword about to impale her head. Panda was swift to counter and stepped on the man's shoes before aiming Hornet below the man's chin and Wasp direct at his chest at point blank range.

The man froze instantly as the masked gun-woman fired both weapons at the same time, knocking him out flat before being kicked by the girl sending him flying and planting himself on to the wall.

"Shit! Where'd the hell did this bitch come from?"

One of the remaining conscious men stated as they all looked around seeing some of their friends were down, shot in areas where it was normally lethal but they all remained breathing yet half dead.

"Damn, that's three seconds too late from my estimate." Panda mentioned this as if she was ignoring her targets. With a click of her tongue, the men in front of her all scowled and encircled her with weapons drawn from their own hammer space.

"I'll kill this bitch! I'll gut her like a fish! I'll…" Words would not be finished back then as Panda used a peculiar stance while using her guns.

"Hyakka Ryoran (One Hundred Flowers Blooming in Perfusion)…"

In the dead silence of the gap between them and the weirdly dressed assailant, the men had their eyes going wide in surprise as multiple flashes of what they could tell was light, bombarded them from all directions.

**BANG!**

**BANG!**

**BANG!**

**BANG!**

* * *

In another part of the building:

A boy with long hair tied at the middle and wearing a one piece black Chang Pao dress over a pair of cotton pants with a vermillion bird, with its wings majestically outstretched and tail coiling around as a design tailored at the back, supported by a yellow sash that was tied to his right side and a pair of black slip on shoes and finally, a white porcelain mask that was in shape of a bird. At his back, was a beige pouch filled to the assortment of weapons scrolls or anything he might need.

Suzaku, for the most part, knew that their plan to creep into this establishment was not going to be smooth sailing. That much he was certain of. Suzaku had wanted them to implement Nue's style of infiltration, demolition and sabotage as it was less of a hassle and less messy. But apparently, Seiryuu either did not feel like complying right now, or he wasn't subtle enough that he was discovered.

Cursing his luck, Suzaku had no choice but to go with the flow with his teammates right now. Knowing Seiryuu, he was most likely faced with the horrible luck out of the three of them. It was always like that.

Turning to the side, Suzaku moved fluidly as he spotted one of the members of this establishment before charging at him with a subtle open palm strike. The man fell to him but Suzaku caught him with ease before shoving him to the nearest area where he won't be seen.

"That masked bastard's one of 'em!"

He heard a yell and he turned around, instinctively blocking a punch straight to his face and evading a fire based magic that would have burned his whole face alive with a tilt of his head.

In his cold and emotionless voice, Suzaku spoke, "Unfortunately, you had the pleasure of meeting us. Today, your fate has been decided."

With a flash of his hands, Suzaku dealt an easy blow to the man he just parried from a punch with another palm strike before pushing him away and retrieving him back with his free hand and delivering a knee strike to the man's gut forcing his victim to cough out blood before being hurled away from his area and slamming to another. With a spin and a step forward, Suzaku advanced, punishing his enemies with his fighting style and moved through the field like quicksilver. He weaved and ducked from every angle that his enemy could think off and when giving an opening, Suzaku took it and abused it to the point that as if they saw the man was not to give out mercy through out this match. Many of them were terrified of him and his mask made him much more demonizing than his ferocious skills displayed.

"I-It's them..." One of them stuttered, falling on his butt as his legs shivered from the sight of the man.

"It's that dangerous guild that's been hunting dark guilds several times! I-I can't believe that we'll be facing them! I can't believe they actually exist!"

"It seems you know more about us than you look. I can't have that now, can I?"

Dear gods even his voice was scary! The boy was talking to them with a cold and calculating tone as he took a step forward. The wind briskly picked up from his pace as he outstretched his hand to the side while he mumbled.

"Wind basked in the Northern Frost that which freezes all with its deathly touch…"

Suzaku then clasped his hands together at his front as magical energy formed into a tiny ball and then stretching it from his hands before materializing in front of him. Suzaku grasped the object with his right hand as he continued his chant.

"Out of the ice and snow, the command has been given, show your strength and aid me in battle!"

The formless energy materialized into something much more recognizable, as the wind collected onto the pole and began forming a scaled green coloured, single edged spear with a large crescent blade growing larger from the base.

"Qing Long Yan Yue Dao (Green Dragon Crescent Blade)…"

Suzaku twirled the spear around him and then hit the ground with it causing the ground to sprout out ice like a wildflower.

With that the men cowered in fear before his presence. The wind gently caressed them as the ice slowly crept from their feet up.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you all. That much, I also guarantee."

And with a swing of his spear, the power that it held lashed out.

Somewhere else:

Such display of cowardice and underhanded tactics are most un-youthful!

Seiryuu did not like the fact that these people would use their own downed comrades as shields against him! It was a practice worthy of the lowest of low! It was to instil to them the power of youth!

Seiryuu charged at his enemies, uncaring of his armor of brown leather and bronze, scaled like and anti-magic armor that deflected any pesky projectiles that came his way, he raised his hands, covered by a cotton fabric by the arms and bound closely by the same bronze that now served as gauntlets, he grabbed a man that stood before him and quickly slammed him to the ground with the force of a megaton hammer.

He jumped, bronze leg bracers ready as he used them to nail another thug with a vicious kick to the sternum.

"Face the azure beast, Seiryuu, with your pride and your honor as men! For I will show no mercy to all cowards!"

He had wanted to be subtle earlier, but after being spotted in planting the paper bombs in one corner and sloppily giving an excuse he had no choice but to retaliate when these people began blasting him off with magic.

Not that he did not want to fight these un-youthful men, of course he had an urge and a sense of duty that he had to. These were people who were running drug cartels all around Fiore as well as connected to multiple dark guilds that turn to them for profit. They would force random men and women and force them to sell whatever they want them to sell. Seiryuu had noted that these people who kept dragging people down to their hell used innocents to act as middle men to the point that they bully children into doing whatever it is they wanted for a meagre price.

Seiryuu was angered at the thought alone.

How could these people erase their own sense of conscience like that? Did their greed ultimately take over them? Seiryuu knew the lure and price of power, he understood it, he had known its value. Being portrayed as a failure his whole life because of a small problem, he had come to realize the significance of power and how its lures and temptations should never be underestimated. Money was just one of them.

"On the wings of the great Hermes, your caller beseeches you!"

Seiryuu gathered magical energy around him and a circle, not wider than two meters by its radius, began forming around its caster.

"Let him move like quicksilver, to strike like lightning and to pierce the skies, straight and true!"

The magic circle vanished as Seiryuu's feet actually began glowing and pulsing from the gathered and pent up magical energy. With a deep breath, the power beneath his feet began surging upwards in a torrential show of force.

"Senko Tenkuu (Flash Heaven Drive)!"

With a literal sonic boom, Seiryuu had quickly vanished and reappeared from the eyes of his enemies and at almost the same time, appeared right above one of them, his straight flying kick already connecting to one of the still conscious men, forcing him to drop the meat shield in his front.

Seiryuu vanished once more, and with the wake of another sonic boom that sent any man conscious or not flying from his close proximity as the very earth itself shook upon his unleashing of his magic.

"**RAAAAHHHHH!"**

Seiryuu appeared once more in more than just a split second and drove a shaky and thunderous punch directly at his last target sending him actually crashing _through_a wall and wedging himself into another.

The explosion of power radiating in waves. Seiryuu stopped when he saw the destruction and havoc he had caused.

This was his power, uncontrolled, unbridled and destructive. And unlike many people that he had come to know and understand during his shinobi career, he understood his power, and that power, was something he had already came far to understand even if he was not granted by it before.

"ALL YOU BRATS, BACK AT THE GUILD HOUSE, NOW!"

His musings were cut short when those loud screams coming from the communicators engineered and planted to their masks made a sharp and a pretty ear splitting sound.

Looks like Anko would be giving them a tongue lashing for today.

Another voice called out, female again, and she sounded both annoyed and angry at him, "I blame you, Lee."

Lee gave a salute and a stiff apology at that, "I am very sorry, but the fact that I was discovered left no room for me not to retaliate!"

Another voice sounded to the communicator, this time it was Neji and he was sighing in exasperation at the whole thing. He couldn't believe that he was going to be lectured by a ninja who is in the same rank as he was.

"His fault or not, it already happened. At least the evidence we have of that place is still in one piece."

The building behind them collapsed and debris began falling on to the ground like a cascading waterfall of concrete.

Tenten spoke as they walked back to their guild house, "Too soon?"

Neji shook his head while palming his face even though it was covered by a mask and replied, "Shut up."

* * *

Kage Guild house, outskirts of Onibus Town:

It was rare seeing everyone being in complete attendance for the day. Most of the time, many of them were out on missions or gathering information. The small guild had a rotation set in terms of what their duties were and when they could take a break. Today, Naruto and the rest that came back from Hargeon Town after their mission were the ones at break while the rest were gathering information. Unexpectedly, they came earlier than usual and unfortunately, they too came empty handed that day.

"You guys look like you've been through hell and back." Naruto commented seeing the team that went out on the drug bust mission entering the secret gate that was the guild house's entrance. Tenten merely gave him a glare while Neji grunted before the duo looked back at Lee who looked like someone who was preparing to receive punishment while Anko kept hollering at them at the back,

"I asked you to at least leave some of the targets coherent enough for a mind scan to see if they have anymore branches and you left that place with all of them half dead or brain damaged! I thought you three were one of the best groups pitted together! That was one of the worst performances I've seen in my entire life!"

Neji refuted, "To be fair, Lee has a knack of being unfortunate in these kinds of things if he's left alone to his own devices."

Anko pointed at him, "Don't give me that, Hyuuga! You all charged in there like amateurs with Shuriken flying! Now we'll have an even harder time tracking down their network!"

The three groaned at this as Gai, or Byakko was laughing heartily at the situation almost seemingly proud of his batch of misfits. Naruto jumped in surprise seeing Gai at his side with his arms crossed

"Anko let them experience their foolishness! Being a fool driven by passion is what makes them YOUTHFUL!"

"Ack!"

To this, many of the residents of the complex began going by the door as Gai explained further, "To find that energy, to battle with your heart burning with impossible rage, to feel the blood that runs with fire! That is the epitome of youth!"

"UWWWWOOOH! Gai-sensei! I am so moved by your forgiving nature! You make this man cry with your speeches! I have let my youthful passion take me to thoughts that I did not know I had, yet you understood it!" Lee said as streams of tears fall from his eyes and wiping them away with his left arm. Gai approached Lee and without warning, punched him so hard that the rock that Lee landed on shattered and scattered dust and debris everywhere.

Everyone was watching with beads of sweat at the two as

"Lee, you fool! I say it is fine letting your passion take over time to time, but you must not let it dictate your mind every time! I've said this to you many, many times and still you do not listen! It pains my youthful heart to say this but you must be punished accordingly! You shall be running with your hands all around the forest in five hundred laps!"

By this time, Wendy, now wearing a simple yukata was at Naruto's side as she was asking the blonde, "I-Isn't that overkill, Naruto-nii?"

Naruto simply gave a wry smile and a nervous laugh, "Not when it comes to those two."

"Gai-sensei, you are absolutely correct! I have let my passion take me over more than once now! I've failed myself as your student and accordingly, must follow through your punishment for my failure!"

"No Lee, we are both in the wrong. I have failed you as your sensei. I've been lenient on you because of me treating you as my favourite…"

Gai's fist shook as Lee looked on with a glazed expression to his master.

"Therefore, I must follow through with the same punishment as my student! If I can't do that, we'll have to swim fifty miles with metallic weights on our ankles and arms and if we can't do that…"

By this time, Lee's eyes were looking like they were burning from the challenges that Gai kept shouting.

"UWOOOOHH! Gai-sensei, I am so moved by your sympathy against your wayward student! You have shown me the person that I must grow up into!"

It was then that Master and student both shed streams of manly tears from their eyes as both gave each other a manly hug that caused a huge wave of water coming from the ocean.

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

The sounds of wave crashing and an image of the sun setting by the sea shore invaded everyone's senses as master and student hugged each other.

"Wow, does that happen often?" Wendy asked to anyone and everyone around her simply nodded.

"Huh. You'd think after two years, you'd experience their sort of insanity in just a matter of days." Shikamaru muttered before going back inside for a nap.

It was then that Shizune's (Doku) group composing of Hinata (Miko) wearing a black fitting long sleeve and black stockings underneath a purple kimono just reaching to her upper thighs with the symbol of Yin and Yang emblazoned on her back and a large pink bow at the small of her back her mask was that of a young woman, with red auburn lips and eyes closed half-lidded, Sakura (Ouka) wore a zip up red vest over a black tank top and green waist hugging fanny pack with the bag hanging loosely to her left thigh over black shorts reaching just above her knee and arms wrapped in shoulder bracers and black gloves. Her mask was almost the same as Naruto's but with the design of multiple cherry blossoms drawn on to the porcelain accessory. And finally Ino (Majo) who wore what could be described as wearing a corset dress beneath her black form fitting pants and short sleeved leather jacket, all appeared from the entrance after their information gathering. They all looked tired, perhaps even drowsy. They've been gathering information for two days straight.

"Any luck?" Chouji asked to Ino while the girl with the mask of an old woman, wrinkly and disturbing.

Ino shook her head and said, "God, these past few days have been such a waste of my time. I need a long bath."

Ino said as she made a beeline inside. Wendy went off to greet Hinata with a hug that removed her mask and smiled at the girl as well as smiling at Naruto.

"Well, I guess she missed you."

Hinata gave a simple reply while maintaining her smile, "And I missed her too."

Over the months turned into years of spending time with each other, Hinata grew more confident and sure of herself. It wasn't just that, she had her experience as a warrior fighting in the frontlines of the Fourth Shinobi War. She was able to come this far because of her own idea of striving for her own strength. She had come to realize just how short life was and things could have ended in a flash right then and there. But it was during her stay in this world that she had come to the conclusion that she should live her own life to the fullest and without regrets.

It helped her get close to the boy she had liked for so many years and Naruto didn't seem to mind it. He had, after all, started growing up with the life of a selfish boy behind him. He wouldn't admit it, but somehow, he had learned to appreciate this kind of life, where there wasn't a struggle for him. It almost made him feel normal, human and without a care in the world.

It certainly helped they grew close to Wendy because of Naruto's seemingly playful nature and Hinata's relation to her behaviour.

"Hinata-nee, please help me with my training today!" Wendy asked politely with a bow and Hinata answered, "I'll be glad to help."

"Hey, that's not fair, you could have asked for my training too!" Naruto pouted as he crossed his arms at that and gave an indignant huff.

Sure, he knew that he could be rough at times, but Wendy knew that Naruto's type of training were just adapting and basics. Charle once said that Naruto will teach him all the essentials, but after that when Naruto said most of the time that he fights winging it all, Charle mentioned that Naruto was a simpleton.

So that's why Charle said that Wendy was better off fighting under a blanket than facing someone like Naruto, who took simple laws in fighting and using them all the time.

Naruto was seriously starting to hate that snarky feline.

"By the way, where are Kiba and Shino?" Hinata asked looking around for her former teammates

Naruto's pout ended when he replied and pointed inside, "They're inside with Kakashi-sensei, they said that they were discussing something and that he was thinking about expanding the complex with this big space."

Hinata nodded and asked as the three of them went inside while Wendy was listening in, "When was this happening?"

"Just yesterday, I think I heard Kakashi-sensei mentioning once that he wanted to buy something really important." At this, Naruto shrugged before he continued, "I don't know what kind of object that Kakashi-sensei intends to buy and put it at something that big inside the complex."

Indeed, what could be that big that Kakashi intends to purchase.

Hinata looked back at the entrance of the complex itself and asked, "More importantly, how will that fit through the door?"

To this Naruto shuddered at the thought, "Yamato-taichou wouldn't be pleased about something like that."

Just the imagination alone would be enough to make him laugh and fear for what Yamato's reaction would be when Kakashi does make his purchase.

"There's been some rumor going about these past few days around the town I've been in." Hinata mentioned it out of nowhere, hoping to strike another conversation with Naruto. Twelve years of having a crush on the blonde, and she was still in love with him. She noticed that Naruto wasn't as headstrong as he was back then, but his determination was still there, something that Hinata had admired more for his belief that he could do the impossible.

"Really? I'm surprised you didn't tell anyone that." Naruto said as they turned around the corner and made their way to the dojo but not before stopping by the supply room and giving Hinata something fresh to drink.

"It's about Fairy Tail."

"Them again? Just a few days ago I met with a member back Hargeon Town. The guy destroyed the clock tower from what I can tell."

"Well, this one was a bit stranger. Erza-san had shouted and alerted the general populace of a terrorist attack on a train station in Oshibana town."

Naruto looked thoughtful at this, trying to remember the name, "Erza… You mean the girl who can use multiple swords and armours, right?"

Hinata gave a single nod and continued, "The people panicked for a while trying to run away from the station as a result but nothing actually happened."

"Damn, was that a prank?" Naruto asked, somewhat impressed.

Hinata shook her head at this, "No, I don't think so, Erza-san wasn't one to play with mischief which makes it all weirder."

"Fairy Tail did that ruckus? Wow, they really know how to cause a stir." Wendy commented, earning a chuckle from both Naruto and Hinata.

As they made their way to the dojo, Naruto decided that they needed to split up, not because he was uninterested in training, but because he had to see what Kakashi was up to. After all, it wasn't just HIS money that's being used in there it was the guild's money that Kakashi was going to spend.

In the large space that they had just created, Kakashi (Haiirogami), Shino (Kuwagatamushi) and Kiba (Inugami), looked at their handiwork as they looked pretty proud of themselves, though Kiba was still curious as to what the purpose of the large space was.

Kiba, throughout the years, like many of his peers, grew taller. Instead of his black Ninja pants, he wore denim jeans with small tears near the knee downward as well as multiple chains looping at the side of his left pant leg to his back was Akamaru, who grew several feet more that he now was the size of a pony and was lying on the ground, white t-shirt underneath his leather jacket and a spiked choker on his neck and wrists.

To his side, Shino had forgone the hood and now wore what looked like the same overcoat he had one years ago, but instead of a jacket, Shino was now wearing a scarf and a black utility belt in the same manner and color as Shikamaru's. Kiba smirked as he remembered that he had joked about Shino's magic that seemed to come out of a serial box. That did not sit well with Shino and he sulked for a whole day at that.

Not that he meant that as serious, but in all honesty, even though it was pretty kiddie, Shino's magic had to be one of the flashiest and easily exploitable by kids everywhere if he were a famous mage.

"So, what's the purpose of this big hole?" Kiba asked as Kakashi replied vaguely,

"Oh, you'll eventually find out. I just made the purchase and I foresee that we'll use it in the immediate future."

"I hope it proves to be what you say, Kakashi-sensei. For I don't think anyone would be satisfied if you bought something that they would deem useless." Shino commented, more out of concern to their guild master than to their members.

"Trust me, it's a good investment for the future, you'll thank me later once it happens."

"For your sake, sensei, I hope it does." Kiba mentioned and Kakashi merely gave a small chuckle.

* * *

Magnolia Town, Fairy Tail:

It was rare getting jobs that involved Onibus Town without the famed play that had no actors. Rarer still, that a person would request for a job that involved investigations in said town where there was almost nothing going on but that stupidly famous play.

Mirajane, even though she hated plays, was almost desperate enough to take the job just to see the boy she had been crushing on for the past two years. Two years of going back and forth into that town and she never saw him again. She was distraught! How could a jerk like that elude her no matter how many times she came back to that dinky little town?

She couldn't spend more than a day outside the guild because she had priorities to her siblings and fooling around when they needed the money to pay for the dorms that they were staying in as well as the food and other utilities.

She didn't want to be suspicious either. That stoic bitch, Erza, had been eyeing her lately and asking her what she was obsessed about in Onibus Town that she had to go back. She never quite told the woman her straight answer.

Unless, that is, until she had encountered a job in the second floor that got her interested.

'_Locate and capture (if possible), the Great Forest Deity of Onibus Town within a week's time.'_

'_Reward: Five Million Jewels!'_

Now there was something definitely interesting. According to the report, the forest deity moved in the seemingly dense woodlands of the forest outside the town and glowed like a bright star in the middle of the night and wherever this thing went, plants, flowers, all types of Fauna grow and propagate to wherever he stepped on. Unfortunately, she never received an entire description of the person, merely anecdotal sightings placed on the job description. She did however, received a massive clue. That this creature tended to shine like a beacon in the night. What she had to be careful though, was the sheer speed and agility that this creature has.

No wonder this thing was elusive and extremely hard to catch.

With a tight grip on the crumpled paper, Mira went down and grabbed Lisanna and Elfman intending to shove them to their respective apartments as they began packing their bags.

"What's with Mira?" Asked Grey as he watched Mira dragging her siblings away from the guild while they look helpless.

Erza frowned at Mira's peculiar behavior as she asked their master, "Master, I wish to know what is happening to Mira. She's acting… Strange as of late."

Makarov drank his tea and replied to Erza in a sagely manner, "It's part of a maiden falling in love."

Erza looked puzzled at this as many of the guild members in Fairy Tail stopped their drinking, brawling and shouting to look back at their boss. Dead silence filled the air as they all stared at Makarov with shock in their system.

"Master, did we hear you right? Mirajane is in love with someone? _The_ Mirajane? _The demon_Mirajane?" Cana asked while Makarov answered without as much as batting an eyelash.

"Why not? I don't see anything wrong with it. Mira is a normal girl. Falling in love is just a part of youth."

In the outskirts Onibus Town, two people running with their hands sneezed causing them to lose balance.

"Yeah, but Master, this is Mirajane you're talking about. The girl that has a sadistic mean streak and likes to act tough. You seriously can't be thinking that…" Macao tried to reason while Makarov laughed it off.

"Oh, posh, you people need to be more open minded when it comes to that girl. She may not show it, but if you look hard enough, the signs are there." Makarov interrupted as he gave a sigh of contentment with his tea. To this, he turned around and looked at Erza's group.

"You four should go with whatever job Mira is in. She may be an S-Class mage, but I feel that she may act a little too overboard with that job she's doing."

Natsu, Grey and Lucy looked on interest while Happy floated and landed on Natsu's head looking at their master.

"What is the job, Master?" Erza asked and Makarov scratched his chin at the thought.

"Not many jobs cross our guild in Onibus Town that doesn't involve that weird play, but if I remember correctly, there's a job that involved searching and capturing the elusive Forest Deity by the outskirts. There's been sighting of the thing for the past year or so, I think it's pretty harmless, I just don't want Mirajane inadvertently angering it." To this, Makarov then pointed to the quartet plus pet, "That doubles for you four. I don't want you to cause enough destruction that could potentially bring us all bad luck."

Lucy looked quite excited at the thought of seeking out a creature of almost mythical proportions!

"Wow, just think about it, looking for an elusive creature in a wild forest, it's like something from a novel!"

Natsu didn't look quite impressed, "Meh, forests aren't all that. After jumping from tree to tree it all becomes so boring."

Lucy deadpanned, "Oh, I almost forgot, you were raised in a jungle."

By a dragon if his claims were to be believed.

"What'd you expect from a moron, anyway?" Grey commented earning an angry remark from Natsu, "At least I'm decent when I go anywhere, streaker!"

"You want to make something out of it, pinky?" Grey stood up raising his sleeve and preparing for a fight, but that all stopped when they noticed Erza's icy and murderous glare.

Natsu and Grey shuddered and sat back down

"Good children."

Needless to say, Natsu and Gray would behave and not speak to each other all day when they reached Onibus Town.

* * *

Onibus Town:

Uzumaki Naruto was never one to rest for long. It's also a well known fact that he had a knack of training himself from dusk till dawn if he could help it. Right now, he had just finished practicing his Sage Mode and other jutsu as well as his newly acquired magic. Even then he could still have a go. It had been a while since he was able to polish his skills. He knew he had to maintain and develop his skill level. He had told Shikamaru that he wasn't allowed to use the Kyuubi's chakra near their vicinity. The pineapple head never said he could do it pretty far out from the compound.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto closed his eyes and reached out for the chakra pool different from his own. The familiar tugging and sudden enhancement followed as Naruto opened his eyes. The seal patterns that he and Jiraiya had thought off traced its way around his body and his body glowed in yellow light, blanketing him to a form that made him glow in the night. With a single nod, Naruto looked at his right hand seriously for a second and clenched it. Naruto slightly crouched and vanished from his position in a burst of speed only leaving behind in his wake, a yellow flash.

At the train station, seven figures stepped out of the train track with the pink haired dragon slayer stumbling at the station floor and looking like he was about to hurl.

"I still don't get what the master was thinking about you four chaperoning me and my siblings. We could do our work just fine!" Mira shouted in ill repute. She hated being treated like a child, even now; it irked her to no end about such things.

"The master isn't worried about that. What he's worried about is you overdoing it, you dumb cow." Erza replied, not missing a chance to add an insult or two to Mira. Mirajane gritted her teeth at that mocking grin that Erza was giving her. She had to control her temper, lest she make a bad impression on the blonde hunk that she had been crushing on.

'_Control your temper! Control your temper! CONTROL YOUR TEMPER!'_ Mira shouted her mantra as she tried her hardest to not let her anger get the best of her and not pound Erza's face in until it had the consistency of Hamburger meat.

Erza's smirk grew wider. So it's like that, eh? She can't throw out an insult or do something unladylike unless the one she's been trying to impress turns away from such a behavior.

Not that she wanted Mira to end up broken hearted, but the person had to see Mira's true nature to see if he would still be willing to take a liking to her comrade. Mira may not know exactly, but Erza cared for her as a friend would. She was a mage of Fairy Tail after all. And if the impossible happened like somehow, Mira were to cry, then she would beat the hell out of this mystery man.

"Listen, I don't have time for your insults. I have a job to do and it's involves chasing down an elusive creature! I don't need your help in getting it!" Mira shouted as changed to her demon form and flew into the sky to look at the forest. Sure, she wanted to see the blonde, but a job is a job. Getting that Fairy Deity or whatever it is comes first before she had to see him again.

"Wow, I've never seen Mira-nee act so adamant about this. She didn't even get his name and she's going crazy for a boy he's only met for a night." Lisanna commented while Elfman shook her head.

"When Nee-san puts her mind to it, nothing is going to stop her from getting it. It's in her nature. I just hope he doesn't break nee-san's heart with how she's been devoting herself in finding him over the last two years."

Erza nodded as Natsu and Grey looked up,

"Man, how is she going to see that thing in the night? Its perfectly pitch black out right now." Natsu muttered as Erza materialized a small lamp with the fire dragon slayer lighting it up.

"This should do for now. We're here to keep an eye on Mira, not to help her with the search. That's their job. What we're here for is to support her." Erza mentioned as they began walking.

"Support her from what, exactly?" Grey asked as he looked sideways even though he couldn't see anything at night in this awfully large forest.

"Why, her love of course." Erza replied and Lucy commented at Erza's response.

"Wow… Erza is so cool!"

Happy commented, "Aye!"

It was then that Natsu stopped when he sniffed the air.

"What's wrong, Natsu?" Lisanna asked in concern as Natsu was scowling.

"Someone's coming very fast. And it smells like the girl that Lucy met back in Hargeon Town."

Natsu sniffed the air once more and then looked to his left, the others did the same and the rustling of trees became present. They stood on alert as they looked to Natsu's left the rustling became louder and Natsu commented, "Wow, that thing's fast!"

Erza's eyes widened, "I read from the job details that the forest Deity is extremely agile and it glows by the night as it leaves a trail of growing fauna in its wake. Everybody, prepare yourselves and contact Mira when you can."

It was then that they saw a magnificent creature as it seemingly glided in the air. It was bright, yellow in color, glowed in the dark like a large and magnificent light. The hem of its cloak swayed in the chilly night wind as it sailed past the group of six. They never had a good look at its face because it was simply just too fast but its head looked like sharp rays of the sun.

Everything seemed to slow down as they were staring upwards to the seemingly beautiful Forest Deity as it vanished into the inner forest.

Silence followed through them as Natsu shouted with all his being, "Get back here forest bastard! We need you for Mira's love!"

And so, the chase of the night began.

* * *

To be continued…

Well here's the latest chapter and I have to warn people that I won't be able to update again for some time (Med school) but I am trying to balance it and I've been writing on the weekends. I also just came from a semester break that involved me visiting China.

Writing on the go should never be on your list if you have to keep an eye on your stuff. :P

Anyway here's an update on the list:

Murakumo- Naruto

Haiirogami- Kakashi

Kurohebi- Anko

Byakko- Gai

Nue- Shikamaru

Tengu- Yamato

Kappa- Sai

Oni- Chouji

Suzaku (Vermillion Bird)- Neji

Seiryuu (Azure Dragon)- Lee

Panda - Tenten

Miko (Priestess)- Hinata

Ouka- Sakura

Majo (Witch)- Ino

Doku- Shizune

Inugami (dog god)- Kiba

Kuwagatamushi (Stag beetle)- Shino

Team Gai (subordinates) Profile:

Name: Rock Lee

Age: 19

Allegiance/affiliation: None (Strictly coming from the council, it is therefore classified until further notice)

Profile: Gai's most beloved student. A real hardworker and recently, has finally managed to compensate for his lack of ninjutsu. Lee's style has never changed since becoming a ninja and adapting to Earthland. He is still very physical and brutal. His personality is rigid and like his teacher, is easily riled up on the most little of things and he still has feelings for Sakura. Lee's greatest weapon though, is not in his physicality but on his speed. He can move no less than the speed of sound thanks to his magic and combined with his Taijutsu training and another magic, Lee has become one of the most dangerous opponents anyone will ever face in one-on-one bouts.

Magic Name: Hermes' Runner

Magic Profile: Hermes' runner upgrades not only speed but also reaction time near the speed of sound and also has an invisible field like object that protects Lee from the harmful effects of excess g-forces at work and friction. The user, with enough training in this style, can also send out supersonic waves of punches that can blow through solid steel.

* * *

Name: Tenten (No given last name)

Age: 19

Allegiance/affiliation: None (Strictly coming from the council, it is therefore classified until further notice)

Profile: Perhaps the voice of reason within Team Gai. Tenten has a personality of a boy but the delicacy of a girl when it comes to other matters. She's strong willed and idolizes Tsunade to the point of near worship due to her dream of being as almost as strong as the female member of the Sannin. Unlike Tsunade though, Tenten prefers long range tactics and specializes in it to a point where she has become a master of weapons that is within her reach. During her stay in Earthland, she has grown a certain affection for firearms and has been training in the varieties that they have to offer from simple pistols to heavy artillery. Not only that, Tenten has also developed a particular close range style along with them. Indeed, Tenten has become a dangerous opponent in short, mid and long range.

Magic Name: The Gunslinger

Magic Profile: The Gunslinger is an offshoot of Erza Scarlett's The Knight magic style. Tenten can change weapons on the fly ranging from simple handguns to heavy artillery from her hammer space. Similarly, due to her shifting styles in both close and long range weapons, Tenten has developed at least a single technique per gun variety that she can use.

* * *

Name: Hyuuga Neji

Age: 19

Allegiance/affiliation: None (Strictly coming from the council, it is therefore classified until further notice)

Profile: The most serious member of the group. Unlike Lee, Neji is calm and collected. Being a jounin, he has developed a no non-sense policy when performing missions and has since then garnered the respect of his peers. Neji thinks highly of his teammate but finds his behaviour as annoying. Although a higher rank than Shikamaru, Neji lets the Nara takeover in missions since he is the most capable and just takes a second-in-command role whenever he's with Shikamaru or any of the other senior jounins. Nonetheless, Neji is a capable leader and can get the job done enough that Kakashi relies on him aside from Shikamaru.

Magic Name: Tozainanboku no Yari (Spears of the Four Cardinal Directions)

Magic profile: Neji's magic consist of four powerful spears that vary in different abilities. Many of the spears that are used by Neji come from different real life myths and these are:

Qing Long Yan Yue Dao (Green Dragon Crescent Blade)

Gae Bolg (Spear of Mortal Pain)

Gungnir (Swaying One)

Amenonuhoko (Heavenly Jewelled Spear)

Each having varying effects and powers and provides Neji with enough midrange and powerful long range.

Note: Since Neji's fighting style is seemingly based from a very close similarity with Baguazhang (notice the similarities in stance between Baguazhang and Jyuuken), I was very much thinking that heck, let's be interesting and make spears a perfect mix for Neji. And for me, looking at it, it still fits because Baguazhang, whether this was the basis for Jyuuken or not, has the same principles and stances. Training in Baguazhang also has a curriculum in weapons ranging from swords to staffs, to spears, to concealed weaponry so do I think it's out of Neji's arsenal and specialty? Absolutely not, even though this is a work of fiction, expanding and seeing some of the stuff and researching the basis to a real life reference can have its perks.


	12. The Chase

Crossing the River Gates

Chapter Twelve: The Chase

_Love is like war, easy to begin but very hard to stop_

**-H.L. Mencken**

* * *

"Get back here, forest bastard! We need you for Mira's love!" More than just a war cry than anything else, it shouted as if he was needed to be bartered for the person named Mira. Naruto looked back to the source of the voice that had echoed through the night and saw a familiar face that was chasing after him along with his posse.

Inwardly, he cursed and turned back to look where he was going, all the while muttering how Shikamaru was always right in this case.

He jumped to another branch and twisted his body sideways as he landed on a trunk before leaping to the next. Behind him, the group from Fairy Tail was giving chase.

'_I hate it when you're right sometimes, Shikamaru.'_

Naruto then made a short leap and raised his right hand and swung on a branch that he had latched on, the resulting momentum sent him swinging upwards and catapulting him on a much farther distance than the mages had anticipated.

"That thing's gaining too much ground! If this keeps up, we'll lose him!" Grey shouted and as if on cue, Erza equipped her Hisho no Yoroi (Flight Armor) trying to keep up with the elusive creature.

"Natsu, alert Mira of where her target is. I'll be the one keeping up with the creature, nya." She said that statement flatly as if there was nothing wrong with it, Lucy pointed at the woman.

"You're getting too much into it!"

And as if no one was bothered by her statement, Lisanna nodded, "How will we find you, Erza-san?"

She hoisted the lamp with her hand and lifted her tail as if it was part of her body.

"You can locate me with this lamp, nya."

Lucy added, "Please stop it with the nya, it's disturbing."

With that, she was off and began chasing the creature as the others were left behind.

Grey looked with a bead of sweat at the back of his head as he said to everyone, "Well, she can't be the one to capture that thing, right?"

"No, Mira-nee wants that thing caught herself. But even I don't think she'd be able to keep up with it if Erza-san is having a difficult time with it." Lisanna replied as she watched Natsu inhaling clenching his hands right before his mouth before exhaling a fireball upwards.

"I guess this isn't an S-Class job for nothing." Elfman watched as Erza attempted, futilely, to keep up with the Forest Deity as it jumped from branch to branch in a convoluted manner confusing the female mage.

The fire that Natsu sent upwards finally reached its peak and exploded like a firecracker or a flare. Mira, who had been scanning overhead, looked back and remembered that her siblings were left behind with Erza's group. In both concern and irritation, she turned back and flew towards where her siblings were.

When she made her way to the group, she looked royally pissed off seeing as they were completely fine. Her eyebrows were twitching uncontrollably as the six juniors all waved at him rather cheerfully.

Her mood already turning sour, Mirajane let out a small but strained question to them.

"_What?"_

Lisanna gladly answered her ill tempered sister, "Erza-nee found the Forest Deity! She's tailing the creature and waiting for you to chase after it!"

"WHAT? WHERE?" Mirajane did a double take as the group pointed just to her right. A growl escaped her lips as she once again took flight, leaving all of them on their own.

"Man, it's going to suck to be that guy once Mira gets a hold of him." Grey mentioned this as they followed in a brisk pace instead, letting Natsu run wild with Happy following suit.

"You're being overly pessimistic about the whole thing, Grey." Elfman told the ice mage who replied, "You know Mira much better than I do, Elfman, and don't try to mitigate the damage of what she's willing to create to have this guy."

"Is Mira supposed to be that scary when she doesn't get her way?" Lucy asked, shaking like a leaf as she imagined a Mira destroying the entire guild house with her tantrums.

Lisanna rolled her eyes with a smile, "Oh come on. She isn't that bad. Besides, I actually think it's pretty cute of her to see the person she has fallen for after all these years. Isn't that romantic?"

"That is so out of Mira's character, Lisanna, and you know it." Grey helpfully added while they tried to keep up. Lucy simply shook her head at this and added,

"Well, in any case, I just hope we get to capture this thing in a matter of hours, this forest has been bothering me and I'd like to get out of here as soon as it's over."

* * *

With Naruto:

'_Told you so…'_

Sage of Six Paths, will that voice of Shikamaru in his head with that condescending voice stop already? He already knew it was his fault, cripes!

Looking back, Naruto could see the stone (albeit cute) faced red head chasing after him while wearing of what looked like a very risqué outfit.

With a Cat Tail.

And apparently a pair of cat ears just to sweeten the deal.

"You're not getting away, nya!"

Sweet, mother of… Even a catchphrase!

Naruto just had to wonder just how mentally stable was the girl and what did he do that he deserved to be hunted down by this woman.

"EEEERRRRZAAAAAAAAAA!"

A loud booming voice echoed throughout the night skies, and Naruto had to take a sneak peek backwards and saw another scantily clad woman, this time with long flowing silver hair chasing after her at a speed that would even leave Gai impressed.

"HE'S MY PREY, NOT YOURS! DON'T STICK YOUR NOSE OUT ON MY BUSINESS!" The woman shouted, enough that it distracted Erza and tripped on a dirt clod, giving the blonde enough leeway to leave the two bickering women who were beginning to have a shouting match just a few yards behind him.

'_Well, that turned out okay.'_

Ha! In your face, Shikamaru! That will teach you in trying to be a know-it-all!

Naruto quickly jumped from the canopy of the trees above, he had to hightail it out off here or else those two crazy bitches are going to kill him! Behind him, he heard another person shout, now a man's, dashed to his position like a madman, hell bent on spearing him to the ground. Naruto shrugged as he saw the man trying to keep up with him but obviously failing. He was simply too fast.

But the boy was stubborn and kept on hounding at him even if the gap was simply far too great.

"Get back here so we can get the money and get Mira his boyfriend, damn it!" The boy shouted as Naruto began to pick up pace once more.

"Like I'll ever do that, you stupid goon!" Naruto replied and made a very sharp turn to the right, Natsu, ever the relentless hound, followed the creature that just replied to him as they ran.

Weaving through trees, Natsu was relieved when he saw the creature running at an open field! Ha! That idiot just showed himself in plain sight! No way was he going to loose him now!

"Natsu!"

A shout from Happy came in too late, as Natsu, unprepared of what was about to happen, fell down in the lake and since he didn't know it was a lake that time, his body floated like lead.

**SPLASH!**

The rest of the crew managed to catch up with Natsu and Happy as the pinkette swam to shore. His clothes and scaled scarf were dripping wet, but it wasn't even annoying the pinkette, all he could think about right now was a simple question that needed answers, "WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!"

"You fell into the lake you idiot." Grey replied.

"I SAW NO LAKE, DAMN IT! I SAW HIM RUN ON PLAIN GROUND STRAIGHT AHEAD!" Natsu pointed directly at the body of water and the sound of small waves crashing on the shore made him realize how stupid it was for him to have been tricked like that.

"Doy, genius. If that isn't a lake, I don't know what your definition of a mountain range is." Grey commented as Natsu was about to punch the ever living snot out of the ice mage.

"That would come at a later time you two, the forest deity is gaining ground from us." Lisanna helpfully pointed out towards the yellow glow that was slowly disappearing.

"Where are Erza and Mira, anyways? Those two have the best chances of capturing this thing and so far, things are looking quite difficult for everybody." Lucy mentioned, turning her head around and seeing two stretches of dust clouds rapidly making its way towards them, the blonde summoner could hear the earth tremble from their show of force and the increasing shouting match between Erza and Mira.

Lucy hadn't quite understood the rivalry between the two girls, it was as bad if not downright worse between Natsu and Grey and that was actually saying something. So seeing them squabble like this, without the supervision of Makarov, it made her look like a deer in the headlights.

The headlights from a runaway Freight Train, that is.

"Stop being stubborn and let us help, stupid Holstein!"

"I don't need your help, damn it! The day I ask for your help is the day that I fall in love with Macao, that ain't happenin' in this lifetime!"

_**SWOOOSH!**_

Amidst their heated argument, the two never noticed the trail of their terra forming behind them as anything that stood in their way automatically got mowed down or sent flying.

"Don't be so obstinate! If you want to meet up with the person you like sooner then let us help you out!"

This time, Mira blushed at Erza's tirade but retaliated soon after.

"I told you a million times, it ain't happening! The person I like has got nothing with this job, so screw off!"

"Right, because Onibus town interests you with their bustling theatre arts." Erza mentioned that with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

**SPLASH!**

Erza emerged from the water a split second later, now wearing what looked like a mermaid costume and was jumping to the surface of the water while speaking to the flying demon.

"Don't you dare try to be smart on me, Scarlet! My motives for this job are my own and for the last time, I don't want your help!"

"So stubborn until the very end, but even that won't help you get what you want with that attitude. Why don't you just admit it already?" Erza commented offhandedly earning a growl from the Demon.

"NO WAY IN HELL, BITCH!"

With that statement, Mira found her body enveloped in magic, eternano literally wrapping around her like a cocoon as she took of like a rocket and chased after the yellow light at the other side of the lake that was slowly disappearing.

Naruto looked back as he suddenly felt something that alerted his senses to overdrive. Behind him was a silver haired woman, bat wings spread about and scantily clad and a look that told him that she wasn't fucking around made Naruto's sense of urgency increase further.

"You're mine, you overgrown desk lamp!" Mira was coming at the creature at breakneck speed. Her hair tussled and swayed about as she dived at the creature like a bullet.

Naruto simply increased his pace and jumped just as he went out of the water and up hill. He looked back and saw Mira gaining momentum as she dashed towards him. The girl altered her flight direction and ascended to where Naruto was. The blonde then took of what looked like an unbelievable leap of faith as he jumped from the peak of the mountain side.

Mira had almost touched the hem of the creature's coat. Her hands were literally centimetres away from the blonde before Naruto vanished in a flash of yellow light.

Mira stopped dead in her tracks as her transformation ended. Her shoulders slumped down as she fell to her knees and watched in utter disbelief as the creature vanished.

"What the, it vanished just like that?" Grey mentioned in disbelief as Mirajane looked over to their shoulder. It was the entire team all caught up, and Elfman having Natsu slung on his shoulders.

By the sniffles that Natsu was making, the dragon slayer had caught a cold.

"ACHOO!"

"Bless you!" The blue winged cat commented, earning a glare from the dragon slayer.

"Dat damb borest basdard… I'g ged him negsd dime." Natsu mentioned this, groggy and irritable. He had lost so badly at this thing he felt like he was a chump to it. His pride was hurt the most and he inwardly cursed his ineptitude for being not fast enough to give out help. Now with his only useful attribute for the mission gone, he was now a dead weight for the job.

"Let's head back to the inn. I'm sure the job employer can be reasoned out by tomorrow, besides, Natsu needs his rest." Lisanna voiced out, obviously concerned about the well being of the pinkette.

"I'mb bine! Dis ihj jus a binor sedbag!" Natsu reputed, only to sneeze once more before sniffing.

"Oooh, the world is spinning."

"That's it, you're going to bed, mister. That is obviously something you wish you hadn't caught!" Lisanna shouted as Elfman sighed, this was just one of the times that their youngest sibling had to boss around. Natsu, being much more boneheaded right now, meant that she would be as twice as bossy to everyone.

"I was close, SO CLOSE!" Mira recalled how that creature disappeared in a flash of yellow light. It didn't even seem possible for a creature to be that fast!

"The job description never said anything about it being able to vanish just like that." Erza recalled the request paper that was on the wall.

"In any case, we'd have to go back and talk with our client. He or she probably didn't know about the forest deity's ability to disappear just like that." Gray advised, it was to let the employer know that the creature could have been so fast that the vanishing move he did earlier was just him running faster than he already was or heaven forbid, that the forest deity has something close to a teleportation ability and that he could get away from them anytime making the whole hunt practically useless in the first place.

'_It's as if it's toying with us.'_

* * *

Once they arrived at the inn, Lisanna, Lucy and Happy opted to stay back to watch over Natsu who was by now sleeping like a log along with a towel on his forehead.

It only took the rest of them half an hour to find the client's house. But saying it as a house would be a terrible understatement. It was more like a mansion that it was a house, they were warned though, that the person that they were asking for was a high profile woman, if a bit eccentric.

"What makes him so high profile anyway that requires her to have a fence that's as long as half of Magnolia's Market?" Gray asked with the townspeople saying that the woman was some sort of weird pervert or something.

He would get his answer once they entered the compound.

"Ah, my most beautiful and magnificent Forest Deity, how I long to see your beauty once more!" The woman wailed as she looked at the unfinished stone statue. It was, more or less, almost a life size image of the said creature, his left arm slightly raised as a small bird perched on top of a slightly bent index finger.

"But alas, you deny me of seeing your eternal beauty!" The woman said with dramatic flair, complete with the back of her hand on her forehead and leaning slightly back. She looked rather nice with a hair band and a red kerchief tied around her neck. Her multi coloured blouse and red tight fitting pants displayed her well shaped legs and her brown eyes matched nicely with her chocolate brown hair.

"Why, why do you torture me so? Why do you deny me of immortalizing you? Why do you deny ME of such a thing?"

Now if only she wasn't so... Eccentric.

"Um… Excuse me?" Erza asked with hesitation. Her words of intrusion however, were not heard behind the tirade of the eccentric artist (sculptor?) and her sense of dramatic flair.

"It pains me that I may never see your light in my own lifetime again!" She continued, now starting to let out sobs. Gray didn't look like he was about to care. In fact, he wanted to abandon the whole damn thing and go home. He turned to his teammates and began to suggest that they just leave it up to the cook who sculpted a near perfect image even if it was halfway done.

"It looks like she's not going to listen, Erza." Elfman commented on the woman's strange behaviour and Erza replied with a nod.

"Noted."

"I say we forget about the whole thing and just look for Mira's future boy toy already. We've beaten around the bush long enough." Grey suggested, finances aside, Mira could just live off from the endorsements she's been receiving because of Weekly Sorcerer.

In fact he was pretty sure that Lucy told them once that she was jealous of Mira.

Jealous of her money, of course, there wouldn't be anything else for that woman's greed.

"I do not have a fucking boy toy! Say that again and these tiles won't be the only thing that will decorate this floor!"

As to make her point, Mira lightly tapped the tiles with her heels.

Her sharp, pointy and likely stabbing high stiletto wearing heels, as a matter of fact.

Gray visibly paled.

"No, a job is a job. If we fail this job, we'll be putting a taint in Fairy Tail, as invalid as that argument has become, however. But I will ignore it for a moment. If only to not let that creature get the satisfaction of it beating us so effortlessly. The Forest Deity WILL be captured one way or another." Erza shook her head at the mere thought of giving up the job. It wasn't even like her to just let it go like this!

Hearing the name of the creature, as if a cue for the said woman she turned back to the group and made a mad dash towards them, "Forest Deity?"

Her eyes suddenly sparkled at the thought of a group of mages finally winning her the prize she had yearned for in the past four months. Her hands clasped together as she asked, bedazzled at the current group that had finally captured her long awaited dream, "Have you found my eternal masterpiece?"

Erza looked sideways and seemed somewhat reluctant to answer seeing as how enthusiastic the artist was. She looked to his team who were staring at her expectantly all the while turning back to the girl who still had that spark in her eyes, admiration still filling them.

"Well, uh, no, to say the least..."

"WHAT?" The girl literally shrieked. Her voice earned a flinch from both the ice mage and the beast man while Mira looked on annoyed as Erza told her of the events that occurred prior to the creature's disappearance.

"THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF YOU PIECES OF SHIT COMING HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?" She hollered, earning another flinch from Gray and Elfman.

"YOU ARE ALL STANDING ON HOLY GROUND, PLEBIANS! YOU DO NOT DARE ENTER THE COMPOUND OF THE GREAT IZUNA OF THE IMMORTAL HANDS! DIDN'T THE MISSION SPECIFICALLY STATE THAT YOU ONLY GET TO ENTER MY HOUSE ONCE YOU HAVE CAPTURED MY ONE AND ONLY PRECIOUS FOREST DEITY? YOU MAGES CERTAINLY DON'T FOLLOW DECORUM!"

To this, the woman pointed to Gray whose shirt was now gone causing the red headed mage to elbow Gray in the stomach for unconsciously taking it off.

Gray grimaced and looked around for his button up shirt. No wonder the townspeople said that they should associate themselves less to this woman. She was worse than an army drill sergeant and had a superiority complex that would completely blow Laxus' own ego out of the water. The quartet was now backing away from every step that their client was taking and was now at the edge of her door.

"YOU FAILED YOUR MISSION, NOW GET OUT! I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU IMPURE BEINGS DESECRATING MY HOLY LAND! OUT, OUT, OUT!"

"But we didn't even say that we're done chasing the creature..." Erza weakly countered her point but she was met with a door slamming in her face along with a loud scream that would have awoken even the heaviest of sleepers.

"I DON'T CARE HOW MANY TIMES YOU BUNCH OF IMPERFECT CREATURES TRY TO EXCUSE YOURSELVES TO NOT EVEN BRING BACK MY MOST MARVELOUS FOREST DEITY! IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE YOUR END OF THE BARGAIN WELL THEN GOOD RIDDANCE!"

"So much for mission report..." Gray muttered earning another elbow thrust, this time from Mira.

"As a man, I simply cannot take her insults. There are simply no words to describe her demeanour towards us. As a man, you should respect your fellow man and show your displeasure through your fists!"

Gray had the common sense to correct the male of Mira's siblings, "But she's a girl."

Elfman could only answer with a simple, "Oh."

"I don't care if she's woman, nobody gets away insulting me like that! Even worse, nobody gets away from insulting me!" Mira was about to tear down the woman's door and show her own state of violence when Erza stopped her and chastised her for her uncontrolled rage.

"We don't have to deal with Ms Drama Queen to get the job done. Since she doesn't want anything to do with us anymore, then so be it. Bet let it be said that we will catch this thing, and show to her face just who is superior." With that, Mira calmed down as Erza gave a small grin on her face as she continued to add.

"Besides, it wouldn't be good to have your future boyfriend discover your name is already tainted with something scandalous as beating up a defenceless artist."

Mira pointed an accusing finger to her friend and shouted, "Shut up! For the last fucking time, I'm in here for the job not to have a fucking boyfriend! It's not too hard for you to remember and stick it in you!"

Gray quickly whispered to Elfman who was snickering from Mira's statement, "That's what she said."

The demon instantly heard that statement and growled at the ice mage, who in turn ran like hell as the woman with takeover magic began chasing him back to the inn all the while blasting him with her magic with Elfman following suit to try and calm her sister down before anymore collateral damage was done.

"Sometimes I wonder how we reached the level of success we have now with these kinds of guild members." Erza mentioned this as she gripped the bridge of her nose and shaking her head in dismay.

* * *

Back at the inn, as Lucy and Lisanna kept watch over Natsu that slept like a rock alongside Happy, the short silver haired girl couldn't help but remember something she and most of her guild mates almost forgot about this town.

Lucy, who had been looking over at Natsu then back to Lisanna who was looking out the window, couldn't help but notice the youngest of Mira's siblings' giving off a melancholic smile.

The stellar spirit mage had to ask, "Hey, you look as if you're trying to recall something wonderful, would you mind talking about it?"

Lisanna shook her head at Lucy's question and smiled once more, "I don't mind at all. It's just that this place made me recall a few friends we had back then in the guild."

Lucy couldn't help but question Lisanna's statement.

A past tense?

"Had?" Lucy asked in confusion to which Lisanna nodded with a smile.

"Yes, had. They were a very colourful group of people, Lucy. I'm sure you'd get along great with Sakura, Hinata or Ino. Get annoyed with Shikamaru's snarky attitude, be amazed with Lee's abilities and laugh at Kiba's antics."

Lisanna remembered the last mission they did that Erza shared with the rest of the guild. She had never seen Erza so impressed with a certain group at that time and to see her telling them the story of their last mission so enthusiastic made their guild master smile from ear to ear.

"It was the first time Erza became so earnest about something not entirely related to jobs. She was so impressed that I think she once dubbed them as role models that all guild members should follow."

"Well, what happened to them?" Lucy asked, Lisanna looked back to Natsu and replied, a bit of melancholy in her voice.

"They had to leave. They had something to do, Sakura said that it was important and that it took all other things to be second to their priorities and move away. After they said they were leaving for Onibus town, we never heard from them again."

"So that's why you were looking out of the window, huh?" Lucy replied, and Lisanna nodded.

Before Lisanna could reply with a nod of her head, they both heard a voice of a female coming from the door.

"Hello? Is anyone in there? I'm here to see the patient!"

That's weird. They never even called for a doctor to check up on Natsu, especially not at this time of the night.

Lisanna carefully reached for the door and peered through the looking hole to see who it was. To her surprise, she saw a familiar face she hadn't seen for so long.

"SAKURA!"

Lisanna immediately opened the door and the pink haired shinobi blinked in surprise. Mirajane's sister, Lisanna was at the door and hugged her very tightly, almost dropping Sakura's bag of medical equipment. Lisanna had noted that Sakura had grown, her hair was slightly longer now and she was a bit taller as well. Her outfit now consisted of a white cotton overcoat over her simple red blouse and black form fitting shirts that was covered once more by her leather satchel.

"Lisanna? What are you doing here?"

Lisanna took a step back and looked over at Natsu as she said, "We had a slight complication about our current job."

Lisanna looked sheepish at this as Sakura looked over to a new pretty face in the room.

"That's Lucy. She's the newest member of the guild!"

Sakura smiled at the girl and nodded, "I'm sure you're still adapting to the life of a guild member of Fairy Tail. Especially once you get to know Natsu and the others."

Lucy nervously gave a nod to the pink haired girl, so even she had to deal with Natsu's rambunctious nature (forget Natsu, the entire guild qualifies too).

"So tell me what exactly happened here that you brought Natsu at the inn and not at the hospital? He looks like he's about to keel over and die!" Sakura pointed to Natsu who was sleeping motionlessly as the pink haired girl opened her bag for her stethoscope and thermometer.

Lisanna then told her about their current job and how difficult it got. It was when the youngest of the Strauss siblings told her that Natsu was tricked into the lake that made Sakura chuckle while placing the thermometer on Natsu's armpit.

"Well, that certainly sounds plausible. This is Natsu we're talking about here." Sakura said as she motioned for Lisanna and Lucy to help her move Natsu and position him sideways as Sakura began auscultating Natsu's upper back.

Shizune had made it clear to her, medical ninjutsu isn't exactly forbidden, but a true and successful medic required much more than just jutsu alone. If it can be helped, use minimal chakra intervention as possible.

'_Well, there's definitely crackles and rhonchi present. Fever's about a hundred and one and has telltale signs of shivering.' _Sakura thought as she grabbed the thermometer from Natsu's armpit and placed her stethoscope hanging on her shoulders.

"Well, he's got the flu alright. Just let him take a lot of fluids and rest and he should be good to go." Sakura then grabbed something from her bag and handed it over to Lisanna.

"Here, he should take this every four hours or every time his fever goes bad. Its medicine used to bring his temperature down if it goes back tomorrow. If it goes bad, you can tell it to the innkeeper and I'll have you moved to the hospital here since I work part time as a medical staff there."

Lisanna looked at her with questions that were filling her head, "Sakura, I want to know how you and the others have been? You've never really wrote us back after you disappeared from the face of the planet. No one seems to have seen you apart from that train incident to Onibus Town and that was two years ago."

Sakura remained silent for a moment as Lisanna let out her grief over them. After all this time, two years to be exact, she still trusted them, and wished that they keep in touch. Sakura couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Sakura wanted to tell her the truth, but to tell to Lisanna of what their job is right now would be too dangerous. If word got out that the Magic Council was hiring an unknown and unregistered guild, they would be compromised and all sorts of controversy would ensue that would discredit the highest authority on magic of the country. Kakashi had advised them that in order to keep the town from being too suspicious, they had to take normal part time jobs apart from their real work as a way to gather more information just in the town. Kiba worked at a nearby pet shop, Ino was working part time as a florist along with Hinata, Tenten worked at the local smith and so on while some would go from town to town to travel and gather info there. She, as being in a field of the shinobi arts that consists much more normalcy than others, decided to work at the local hospital. By the end of their first year here in Fiora, she had earned much more money than any of her friends on additional income.

"Oh, we've all been busy. We're earning enough money to gain any information we can get on how to get back home. I don't think all of us had enough time to write a letter." Sakura said with a sheepish look telling Lisanna that she was a bit embarrassed about the whole thing.

Sakura then added, "I need to go back. It's ten in the evening and my shift is over and I'm just too tired today. Sorry for not seeing you all after all the times you've been there for us."

Lisanna only left out a simple sigh, "I'm just glad that you're all safe."

Sakura gave a smile at Lisanna for this and reassured her, "You take us too lightly."

And with that, Sakura went out the window instead of going through the front door.

Lucy stood amazed. Such a woman who could double as a medical practitioner AND a supposed mage? In her own way, this Sakura person was like a monster!

As soon as Sakura had disappeared from their sights, Mira and Gray (looking like the devil had just chased him), arrived at the inn. Mira wasn't looking too amused while Gray was shivering from head to toe.

It was then that Lisanna, exuberant and happy, told her news about finding Sakura and possibly the rest of her group. An idea soon formed in Mira's head when she sat down. Perhaps a little help and information from the ninja crew (she so aptly dubbed) would be beneficial. Besides, she'd rather enlist the help of Shikamaru than she would let her pride sink and resort to Erza. She wasn't _THAT _desperate.

* * *

The Next Morning:

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO CARELESS LAST NIGHT?" Sakura screamed and literally punched Naruto so hard that the blonde smashed through the wooden wall and out into the forest floor.

The blonde twitched slightly and answered in between groans of pain, "I never really expected someone to have a reward in capturing me, let alone that crazy bitch that lives near the theatre."

Shikamaru shook his head at this, "See, this is what happens when you ignore what I said for more times than I can count. I told you to practice your Chakra form here in the compound. This is just one of those things that I have to say that I told you so."

Naruto promptly replied to the shadow user, "Shikamaru, shut the fuck up."

It was fortunate that Ino was covering Wendy's ears while Tenten was covering Charle's.

"Now you've got high profile mages prowling the forest here for who knows how long!" Sakura replied cracking her fists as she approached the blonde.

"But didn't dickless over there toy with them before slipping from their grasp permanently? And he WAS actually wearing a mask so nobody saw his face." Sai added helpfully while Ino and Tenten covered Charle's ears once more. The vulgarity around the group increased somewhat when they had these kinds of arguments outside of mission briefings.

"Sai! When this is over, I'll go over there and kick YOUR ass!" Naruto retorted earning a kick to his abdomen by Sakura.

"YOU'RE IN NO POSITION TO TALK, YOU IDIOT!" Sakura shouted kicking Naruto now this time to his sides.

"Sakura-chan, those were my ribs..." Naruto replied in agony as he rolled on the ground.

"Naruto was very fortunate though, if for a fact that he tricked the Dragonslayer in following him onto the small lake. I highly doubt that they will continue with the mission with the way their best tracker is currently out." Shino chastised the pink haired kunoichi. Her shouts could be heard almost a mile away. Ino, disputed the bug user's argument.

"Fairy Tail isn't known for quitting jobs just like that. It's a matter of guild pride that they had ever since. Making them quit this job is like making Kiba here tone down his hormones to a low."

"Hey, I resent that!" Kiba retorted earning a flat look that didn't convince any of his friends. The silence that followed after those stares made Kiba growl in anger.

"Fine! I'm a horny teenage boy, fucking sue me!" By this time, Tenten had escorted the kids out of the room.

"HAHA- OH GOD, MY RIBS!" Naruto then decided to refrain from speaking entirely lest he obtain more bruises from his female teammate.

"Getting back on track, how will we be able to get them to back off from the hunt?" Chouji asked in concern, now cringing from his friend's beatdown more than anything else and taking away Sakura's attention from the blonde who was now a heap of bruises and lumps on the ground.

Shikamaru now deep in thought, simply replied, "Well, we can always tell them to keep quiet about it, seeing as they never said anything even after we left."

"And risk a compromise from both parties especially with someone like Natsu who can't keep a secret?" Sakura asked, eyebrow raised from Shikamaru's question, obviously it was rhetorical but Shikamaru, always as sure about his decisions, replied.

"No, hear me out. For the past two years that we have known Fairy Tail, not once had they talked about us being involved in that incident with the illegal lacrimas. We can tell them we only take odd jobs, but we can omit anything that has to do with the magic council."

Ino promptly reminded the strategist, "You realize that you risk exposing us to the public right?"

Shikamaru replied with confidence, "With that train incident and with that busting of a syndicate two years ago, Fairy Tail made the move to keep quiet and not claim anything from it. Makarov's group can be trusted, I know it."

"Well, there goes that problem. Our biggest concern now would be to explain everything to Kakashi or God forbid, Anko." Kiba replied with a shudder at that.

* * *

Somewhere:

Tenko had never intended to use violence in a fight if it could be helped. He had never intended to mount a single man's assault on a guild mentioned as Death Head Caucus for his benefactor, Jellal. In fact he never expected that he would have to go through every single fucking member of this blasted guild all because of a poor choice of words to its most prominent team!

"You're needed by a member of the magic council, come with me right now."

Then, after that, it was pure pandemonium.

Death's Head Caucus, nothing more than a steaming pile of complete hot air. This was a guild filled with assassins? Such a joke warranted nothing to be laughed about. This nameless guild was filled with amateurs.

"Your group bores me to death. Am I supposed to fear such a pathetic guild?" Tenko replied, looking around a group of people, groaning in pain as they were devastated by him in a matter of moments, he wasn't even using his own brand of magic!

In front of him stood his targets, the group known as Trinity Raven. Master class assassins and even they were cautious around this black haired boy with the metallic arm and a sword by his organic hand.

"You are merciless, you display your skill in such a manner that it insults me. You taunt me with your words and destroy our morale; I can see death in your hands; a cold display of a beast, fearless and unforgiving, a ghastly sight." Ikaruga mentioned, her eyes never drifting from the raven haired boy but she could tell how much devastation he had caused in matter of mere minutes.

She was standing against a truly terrifying opponent.

"Fukuro, stand down, you cannot possibly take this man. I alone will be enough to..." The one with the long hair asserted himself to the man with an owl's head but was cut off when the boy in front of them spoke his name.

"Vidaldus Taka. Highly touted in Death's Head Caucus as a Puppet Master, can manipulate and control people against their wills with something called guitar magic." Tenko had pronounced, his emotion of apathy never leaving his face as he took a step forward.

"Your magic is the most dangerous of the three. It is wise that I take you out first."

With movement as fast as lightning, Tenko was already at the side of his intended target, sword drawn in a reverse grip, before skidding to a halt at the opposite end.

The tacky assassin couldn't react fast enough as a diagonal slash appeared at his chest and blood spilling out so suddenly as he fell to the floor.

"Put your mind at ease, I never intended to kill you. You are needed by my benefactor, and it would be wise to leave you all in one piece."

Tenko then swung his sword to the side to throw the blood away from his blade. Vidaldus' life giving fluid staining the floor, Fukuro was but one who didn't take Vidaldus' defeat much too easy.

"Judgement Hou!" Fukuro then let out a beam of yellow energy from his right fist and Tenko simply leaned to his right, letting the energy pass him as the force somewhat ruffled his hair slightly. The raven haired boy then took a step forward and charged at Fukuro with the same speed he used against Vidaldus only to be matched by the owl head's jet pack who was about to ram into him a split second later.

As if his body was obeying his mind's commands perfectly, Tenko jumped and flipped in midair before tossing his sword straight at Fukuro's equipment. The sword embedded itself on the jet pack and soon it began to buzz and malfunction as the owl man was sent careening down to the floor head first. Tenko wasn't done though as he once more approached the man in super human speed while Fukuro was about to fall down. Tenko pulled out the sword embedded at the mechanical pack and punched it so hard with his metallic fist that it broke through the steel and sent the owl man crashing into the wall and embedding himself in it face first.

Sasuke then flexed his non-organic fingers as he remembered the sensation of having both his pain receptors and his motor neurons be attached by this type of mechanical prosthetic.

'_My body is reacting to actions that shouldn't be anticipated. That Fukuro's Jet Magic should have crashed into me the moment I was caught off guard.' _Tenko thought about this as Ikaruga approached him, her left hand already making way to her blade, Mugetsu-Ryu (Form of the Moonless Sky)

'_Yet, I saw it as clear as day, as if he was moving in slow motion, as if I knew what was to happen next.'_

Tenko then spun his chokuto once more and held it in a reverse grip. Ikaruga already unsheathing her blade, she looked at Tenko oh so cautiously. The speed that this boy had just produced, somewhat rivalled her own. Vidaldus and Fukuro could never keep up with her and this boy was toying with them like they were nothing.

"It is to be expected. After all, in a match against power and speed, speed shall always be the victor."

"I sense power within your eyes, warrior. It seems like it is fate that I may have a chance to fight you, knowing that you battle with the same principles as I do."

By this time, Ikaruga's Mugetsu-Ryu was drawn in full effect, its blade shimmering in the light as Ikaruga held it sideways with one hand before going for a defensive stance of resting the blunt part of her nodachi at her shoulders and facing it in front her yukata billowing from the chilling wind as Sasuke's long coat did. Their eyes, never taking off from one another as Tenko began to slowly walk towards her.

"Yasha Senku (Yasha's Empty Flash)..." Without even moving a muscle, Ikaruga's magic took place, slashes from multiple areas around Tenko became apparent and the raven haired boy was soon alerted by a small cut on his bangs. Tenko leaned to the side as another slash had almost cut his head open as he stepped back. Throughout Ikaruga's attack, Tenko kept looking around trying to figure out just how he could get through the pink haired assassin's attack.

'_It's impossible to anticipate them like this and I can't see where they are all coming from! How is she doing such a feat without even moving a single muscle?' _Tenko thought about this as he was avoiding the slashes in futility.

Another nick on the back of his leg, Tenko finally had enough. Tenko planted his chokuto on the floor and stepped on it with his left foot as he jumped and flipped in the air backwards with his speed. His organic hand stretching at his front aimed at Ikaruga who was looking at him strangely.

"Shin En Maho: Shun En (Sacred Fire Magic: Flash Flame)!" Tenko shouted and snapped his fingers. The sword that Tenko left planted on the ground brought forth a wave of orange superheated flames and went to Ikaruga so fast that she was almost engulfed in them. Tenko wasn't done yet as he his eyes told him that Ikaruga would survive such a feat of magic.

Tenko grabbed the sword planted on the ground as he dashed forward into the flames that was now scattered.

Ikaruga had somehow managed to cut the flames with her blade. She was lucky that she was paying attention to the man's intent. No one in their right minds would be that flashy and leave a weapon behind in his disadvantage. What she hadn't expect was the execution of magic that the boy can command to his sword without him touching it.

'_Sword magic? No, he wasn't even touching his blade. It must be some new flame magic then.' _She would not get the chance to recollect her thoughts as Tenko had soon emerged from the flames, blade drawn in a reverse grip as he charged at her.

"You are too naive to have met a swordswoman at her front. You stand no chance of victory!" Ikaruga then raised her arms and the sword went above her head, with a downward slash, Ikaruga shouted at the boy, "Karura-en! (Garuda Flame)"

As the blade hit the ground, a wave of magical flames headed straight to Tenko, who jumped to the side, the left part of his clothes were now slightly singed as the metallic prosthesis that was supposed to be his left forearm grew hot.

Tenko rolled in midair to the side as he landed on the wall his feet flexed to one of the pillars and recoiled as he charged straight to the swordswoman, his chokuto drawn out.

"Shin En Maho: Jouka En no Tsurugi (Sacred Fire Magic: Sword of Purifying Flames)!"

His sword was soon engulfed in orange fire as he charged straight to Ikaruga, who had clashed her sword with the boy's. Tenko somehow foresaw of what will happen next and let go at the last minute, the woman cutting the sword of sacred flames before she felt an uppercut straight to her abdomen and a hand slapping away her grip forcing her to let go of Mugetsu-Ryu.

"This is your loss." Tenko said to her, and Ikaruga got a closer look to his face, or more specifically, his eyes. The boy's eyes were no longer black, they were red. As red as a sea of blood, three comma like objects swirled around per iris as Tenko looked at her with intensity. Who was this person?

"Shin En Maho: Hitodama (Sacred Fire Magic: Will-o-wisps)" Small round flames, now burning blue, encircled both Tenko and Ikaruga. The pink haired assassin could merely watch as the flames encircled them and danced in between, the temperature around them became hot and she could feel Tenko's magic was burning not only her flesh, but somewhat her soul.

She had lost, terribly.

"That was a good match..."

* * *

Onibus Town:

Mira was confused, earlier this morning, Sakura and her group had invited her at a local restaurant to talk about something. Being that they haven't had any sort of communication for two years, Mira assumed that this was somehow their way of apology.

Natsu had come, and despite protests coming from Erza that he needed to rest, the fire dragon slayer became too stubborn for his own good. Many of them noted that he probably missed the group as much as they did.

Looking around, Mira ignored the glances given to her by a lot of men (and some women) and tried to find at least a tussle of pink hair that wasn't Natsu in crowd behind a perfectly clean stained window. Her search was stalled however, when he saw something yellow and spiky just outside the restaurant. Mira's eyes squinted and looked once more, the head of the person she was searching for seemed lost with the crowd. Mira's frustration skyrocketed again and growled under her breath. She was about to shout out so loud for everyone to notice her including the boy when a voice had interrupted her thoughts.

"You're right on time." A familiar voice had said, Mira turned around, and saw a taller version of Shikamaru complete with a small patch of hair on his chin and wearing a casual navy blue long sleeve and a simple pair of black pants, waving at them so casually as he informed one of the waiters for his reservation.

"I figured a barbeque would all suit your tastes right now and maybe some soup for Natsu by the looks of it." He added that last part with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I'm bine Shigamaru! Leeb by heald alone!" The dragon slayer shouted at the shadow user defiantly before sniffing and wiping his nose. Lucy looked disgusted.

"By the way Shikamaru, this is Lucy. She just recently joined our guild." Lisanna lightly shoved the blonde girl forward as Shikamaru nodded before turning back to Natsu.

"Okay Natsu, whatever you say." Shikamaru replied so casually with a shrug as he motioned for the group of Fairy Tail to follow him to a more private room.

Once they entered, Lucy saw a group of really colourful people in her book. A boy with shades, at least a bit older than her, wearing a pair of sunglasses a scar on his right ear and a coat and hood that made him look like a shady dealer by the side of a dark alley. Beside the boy was another boy, wearing a leather jacket and a white shirt underneath. His brown hair was spread out everywhere on his head while a rather big dog was laying behind him the thing that got her attention though, was the red streaks on his cheeks like it was face paint. To her right, she saw a big, fat brown head that was donning a big red button up shirt and a pair of swirls aligning his cheeks. To the big man's side, was a blonde woman, staring at the fat man with a queasy look that told Lucy that she was about to barf.

There, she saw the pineapple head with the developing goatee sitting beside the blonde and beside him, was Sakura, the pink haired volunteer from the local hospital that helped Natsu recover by a little. She looked annoyed at something while to her side was a rather good looking pale skinned boy holding what looked like a sketch pad a seemingly creepy smile plastered on his face.

"You want some fish?" Happy asked to his fellow flying cat who looked quite surprised at the blue exceed's gesture.

"Excuse me?"

Beside them, sat what looked like a pair of rather elegant looking siblings both with flowing long hair and white eyes. While the taller of the two was drinking tea uprightly, the other was talking to a girl with a pair of buns for her head rather formally just two seats across them while a small girl was eating a few snacks with her pet cat just near her, a perpetual frown on her face while Happy was propositioning the said female cat.

To the side of the girl with a pair of buns for her head, sat a boy with a strange and admittedly ugly bowl style haircut that she only saw in the theatres that had an eastern influence, the boy seemingly looked serious as he sat much too upright, too rigid compared to the siblings.

Shikamaru then told them to sit down and looked around, "Naruto still isn't here yet?"

"Something came up with Kakashi-sensei a few minutes ago, Naruto-kun is probably talking to him right now." Hinata answered as Shikamaru sighed.

"He'll come back once they're done." Chouji answered casually picking up another piece of meat and placing it in his mouth.

"I am amazed at how much money you have amassed in just a short period of time, Shikamaru." Erza commented as she looked around. This place looked like something that high ranking council members from Era would regularly go to if her guess was correct.

"Not really, this is just because we do good business. Kakashi-sensei's just a good manager." Shikamaru answered earning an amazed look from Lucy.

"In that short amount of time, they managed to gather enough money to treat strangers to five star restaurants..." Lucy mumbled, counting the dividends in her head as she drooled at the prospect.

"So. Much. Money..." She mumbled once more, earning a look from Happy and pointed to his group.

"Hey, I think Lucy's going insane."

"Lucy's just being a man." Elfman replied, earning a small set of laughter from the other group while Lucy glared at Mira's younger brother.

It was then that they heard a slam on the door that their laughter stopped as they turned their heads. By the door stood Naruto, wearing a simple black shirt, a pair of orange pants and a pair of green wrist cuffs. Everyone was silent, especially Mira who looked much more surprised than she had anticipated and Lucy who was contemplating how he looked so much alike with a person she new back in Hargeon Town. The blonde scratched the back of his head apologetically and replied.

"Ah, sorry about that, Kakashi-sensei just talked to me a few minutes ago. It was really important."

"Sit your ass down so we can begin, man. You know if you don't arrive on time, Chouji's going to have all the meat!" Kiba shouted to the blonde who replied,

"Whatever, dog breath."

Naruto then sat beside Wendy who looked quite annoyed when Naruto began ruffling the girl's hair. Lucy curiously looked at her fellow blonde eyeing him from head to toe especially his face.

Same manners, same demeanour, and his face really matched the girl that she had met before. Perhaps this boy was Naruko's sibling?

"Excuse me, but have we met before?" Lucy asked, and Naruto chuckled. Holding up a handseal, a cloud of smoke exploded around him and transformed into a bombshell girl version of himself.

"Nice to see you again, Lucy." Naruko then gave a playful grin with a wink and blowing a kiss to the blonde summoner.

Lucy's jaw dropped.

"I LOST TO A GUY WHO CAN TURN INTO A GIRL!" Lucy shouted, somewhat outraged, but much more depressed when she had suddenly realized.

Naruko then repeated her consoling words to Lucy, "If it makes you feel any better, Lucy, a thousand jewels is a lot."

The Stellar Spirit mage simply turned to a corner and lightly hit her head on the wall before her tears turned into miniature rivers.

"Is there something I should know about?" Mira asked and everyone except for Naruto and Lucy shrugged.

Introductions came after that as the ninjas introduced themselves along with Wendy and Charle while the Natsu and company did as well.

"Alright, let's get straight to the point."

Everyone turned to look at Shikamaru who cleared his throat a little as he gave a calculating stare at Natsu and company. His eye fell on each and every member of Fairy Tail. His eyes fell on Erza as he began,

"First off, let me remind you that this meeting doesn't get out of here. To the others from this town, this will only be a simple meeting with a few people who you hadn't seen for several years. When you go home to Magnolia, you shouldn't utter a word of our well being. We don't like people disclosing information about us not when two of our biggest threats are still out there possibly waiting for us to make a move."

Lucy had raised her right hand up, "Um, if it's okay with you, I want to ask you about who you are and why do you want us to keep quiet?"

"They are honorary allies of Fairy Tail. At least, seven of them are. The rest either came by only in the guild just once or completely new to me. They came to Magnolia two years ago, hoping to earn some money to look for their friends and possibly find their way back home. After a certain incident, one of ours managed to find a part of their group and went off to Onibus town, never to be seen or heard from again ever since." Erza answered for the group. Lucy nodded her head, the sudden shift of casual talk to seriousness quite frankly unnerved her.

"Did you perhaps hear of that big scandal at the town south of Magnolia two years ago that involved the mayor selling smuggled and unstable Lacrima to the black market who was kidnapping children?" Lisanna asked to Lucy who nodded.

"Yes, I heard of that. Two years ago, there was a mayor who kidnapped children who were curious enough to enter an old abandoned house that was in the mayor's property. I heard that Fairy Tail had a hand in uncovering the case and caused a major riot to happen around town." The Heartfilia heir answered. She had heard of this one of the very few saving reputations that Fairy Tail had gained. If it wasn't for that moment of publicity, she was sure that the guild would have a worse PR problem that it had now. But she wasn't sure how this was related to the group. Erza, Gray and Natsu all claimed credit for what happened back there. It was even on the news for several days and had an article of its own in the Weekly Sorcerer!

"That man..." Erza then pointed to Shikamaru who was resting his chin on his palm as his elbow leaned on the table.

"... Is the one responsible for orchestrating the entire job. He's their tactical advisor and strategist. It just so happened that we were assigned to be their backup once master allowed us to take part on that dubious mission."

Lucy looked on in awe as Shikamaru gave a chuckle, "You make it as if I'm some bad guy here, Erza. You're probably scaring the newbie."

Lucy looked down on her table in despair, "Even with the honorary members I still don't get the respect."

Mira kept staring at the Naruto who was too busy playing with Wendy as she asked in a serious tone, "You're one of them?"

The whole room turned quiet as Wendy and Naruto stopped playing for a moment and stared back at the silver haired girl who looked more curious rather than hurt. All around them, people were staring at the two. Gray, Natsu and Lucy all looked quite surprised that this was probably the person that Mira was crushing on.

Naruto gave a light laugh as Wendy promptly jumped to his shoulders and seemingly didn't even look startled by it.

"Yeah, we had an oath of secrecy that pretty much guaranteed we couldn't give out our names when we're so vulnerable back then. We were separated, and Kakashi-sensei was too strict to adhere with our rules at the time. Especially to me since I'm the target of two of our most dangerous enemies." Naruto then grinned, and above him, Wendy mimicked his facial expression as well.

"Did you find it necessary that you leave us out of the loop though? Many of us back in the guild worry about your safety numerous times." Erza had asked.

"Secrecy states that we cannot risk of information getting out of the circle of people involved with us. Anything else about it falls under the matter of a need to know basis. We cannot hope to risk our identities out there with our kinds of threats." Neji answered and Shino gave a nod.

"That's why we've been keeping a much needed low profile for two years, any form of outside communication should be first deferred to our superiors before we can even manage to talk to you. And even this is stretching it." Kiba continued.

"... Which brings us to another point about this whole reunion that we're having." Shikamaru looked dead serious right now as he continued,

"Forget about chasing that crazy lady's job of capturing the forest deity." Sai mentioned this with a smile. The people from Fairy Tail looked surprised at the request from this group. Why would Shikamaru's group try to stop them from chasing the fabled creature down?

"**WHAT?" **Natsu asked in outrage.

"That forest deity isn't exactly a god. He's one of our own, unfortunately." To this, Sakura pointed to Naruto who looked kind of embarrassed.

Everyone who isn't a ninja except for Wendy and Charle had dropped their jaws in surprise.

"You see, for a while there, I've been training to use my power effectively and was trying to manoeuvre my way around the forest. The plants growing behind me are just a side effect of my power because it has so much life energy." Naruto replied as Ino shook her head.

"This idiot goes overboard when he trains. On the first night of his discovery by that crazy woman, he almost made it to the edge of town even though Shikamaru mentioned that this guy should train in or close to the compound since it was deep in the forest. Pretty soon we had mages coming from every guild to try their luck against him and we had close shaves in them discovering our hideout."

"So this whole mission was a huge hoax to begin with?" Gray asked, rather incredulous. To think that someone would be that powerful was sitting in their midst and playing with a little girl.

"I am afraid so. It is within reason that you find such events as disappointing, however, it is enough that we clarify this with you since aside from several others, you are the one our group has interacted with the most." Hinata answered calmly.

"You bean do dell me dat dis stubid looging guy is da foresd deidy?" Natsu pointed to Naruto who deadpanned the dragon slayer.

"Coming from the guy who got tricked into falling in the lake, I find that insult not really hurting."

"YOU BASDARD! BIDE ME RIDE DOW!" Natsu watched, the pressure in his head growing as he grew slightly dizzy and sat down.

"Although that mission is still up for grabs, no one would be able to catch the 'elusive god of the forest'." Tenten turned to Naruto with a smirk who merely scowled.

"Aside from that boneheaded move done by our equally boneheaded teammate, I hope you can all understand that this blunder doesn't get out anywhere. We're trying to suppress anymore attempts from the artist to capture the blonde. We don't want anymore rumors flying around concerning the 'Forest Deity'. Understand this isn't just for our own safety, everyone here in town is in danger as well. Even Fairy Tail is once word gets out that we're somehow connected to you. It's good that you don't ever speak of this again." Shikamaru answered.

There was silence for a moment in the room as Erza looked at Mira who was looking down. Here she was, so close to her goal, yet, she seemed so unsure of it now, what with all the complications that had appeared before them so suddenly. Mira noticed Erza's subtle stare at her with expectations, waiting for her to talk to the person she had looked for these past two years.

'_With the way things are now, I can't ask him right away or ever. At least I saw him one more time...' _Mira thought about it and for the first time since this mission, a sincere smile escaped her lips as well as a few drops of tears from her eyes. Erza looked on in sympathy.

"I never expected things to turn out this way." With that, Mira stood from her seat and said to the blonde boy in front of him.

"Thanks for letting me see you one more time." Mira bowed gratefully at the blonde who stared at the voluptuous girl in surprise. He never expected the ever haughty Mirajane Strauss to be so timid. From what he can remember, Mira had an air of confidence with her that almost went borderline arrogance yet she had the strength to prove it. She never felt awkward, at least, from what he could remember when she treated him to food two years ago. But now, she had this look that told him she wanted to get out.

Sure enough, she did.

"What's wrong with her?" Kiba asked, looking confused while the rest of the people inside except for the oblivious ones gave a sigh.

"So it's that, huh?" Shikamaru asked with an amused smirk, earning a surprised glance from Erza.

At this, Shikamaru answered her unasked question, "I'm quite the perceptive man, actually. Granted, Naruto has that way with people. You'd be surprised how many women fell in love with that idiot."

To this, Shikamaru glanced at Hinata and then back to the door.

To Hinata's credit, she had never once shown a reaction that would have made the whole thing even more awkward. Of course, Hinata now had her own suspicion on the matter as well. She was a woman after all.

Erza gave another sigh of resignation as she stood up and said, "Now that it's come to this, I demand some sort of compensation for that meeting with that horrible woman a night ago."

"Hey now, it's not our fault that you guys were duped into chasing him." Kiba argued as he pointed to Naruto who was now stuffing his face with freshly cooked meat with contentment.

"Fine then, I demand a match coming from the guy who duped Natsu into the lake."

"**WHAD? BUD HE'S BY OBONENT!"**

Natsu shouted and turned his table over earning a surprise look from Ino and Chouji who looked like he was about to deck the pink haired dragon slayer to next week. Naruto choked from the shock of Natsu's work as Wendy and Hinata helped the poor boy regain his breath.

Shikamaru palmed his face at Natsu's knee jerk reactions and dragged his hand down.

'_Things just got to hell in a hand basket sooner than I thought it would.' _

By the time Shikamaru stood up, Natsu was on the ground, pummelled and out cold by Erza whose hands were smoking for some reason.

Shikamaru gave a sigh and shook his head, "Alright, we're taking this outside and I'm not talking about the street."

* * *

Outside of Onibus Town:

Shikamaru stood between both fighters, on his right, was Erza. The scarlet haired mage looked unsurprisingly serious, sword drawn as she brandished it in front of her opponent. Behind her, stood her friends with Natsu out cold after another dose of medicine and Erza's armoured fist while Happy was fanning the poor dragon slayer with a piece of cloth. Mira had been dragged by Lucy and Lisanna back to their meeting just to see Erza picking a fight with Naruto.

To Erza's front and Shikamaru's left stood Naruto, who looked quite excited as he stared at his opponent.

Above the safe distance of the Fairy Tail mages were the shinobi, all of them intent on watching the bout that was about to happen.

"I've never faced a good S-rank mage before especially ones from Fairy Tail." Naruto said this as he touched his left armband, a plume of smoke soon popped out as covered Naruto's hands. When he retracted his arm back, Erza saw a sheathed wakizashi, its scabbard was the color of leather brown with its tip capped off in pure silver that was designed like clouds. By its hand guard, the silver that ornamented the sword there was a simple one dimensional design of a giant cloud floating.

"So I'm hoping to have a good workout after this." His grin never left his face as he got into his stance and holding the short sword in a reverse grip, Erza's eyed the gesture curiously.

"Interesting variation of requip magic." Erza commented while Naruto simply laughed.

"Not really, this isn't exactly requip magic, more like a home grown skill." Naruto answered as Erza closed her eyes and smiled.

"Quite. I guess there are still many secrets that you people seem to carry."

"Well if you have to ask..." Naruto soon vanished from her view, a blur of yellow and black before appearing to Erza's side in just that instant, his grin changed soon into a frown as he gave a stabbing motion above Erza's head.

"You've only begun to see what we're REALLY capable of!"

Erza almost didn't react in time as she positioned her sword in a guard position over her head and parried Naruto's strike. The clash of metal rang through their ears and sparks flew from their blades. As Naruto, with incredible control over his own body and weight, flipped in mid air, doing a mid air roll before dropping on the ground with his feet, his back against the scarlet swordswoman's own.

Erza twisted, her striking range increased as she turned around, sword swinging horizontally intent of striking Naruto with it. The blonde spun on his own, this time in opposite direction as he was now the one parrying Erza's attack. The clash of metal could be heard once again as more sparks flew from which their blade clashed. Naruto slid the blade forward the sound of metal screeching from ear to ear, and instantly closed the distance between him and the mage, his free hand balled into a fist and drawn back to signify he was going to punch.

Seeing it with her eye, Erza let go of her right hand that was holding the hilt of her sword as she used her glove armour plating to guard herself from Naruto's punch. The blonde stopped his attack, mere centimetres away from injuring his own hand as he reeled it back and went for another weakness, the girl's thigh.

Naruto jumped back a couple of steps, plans began pouring in his head as he saw Erza go back to her stance. But this time, Erza dispelled her current sword and manifested a pair of claymores. Her fierce look never wavered as Erza as she pointed one of her big swords at him while she rested the other blade on her shoulders.

The red head charged as Naruto backpedalled, avoiding much of Erza's sword strikes and even blocking some of them. Naruto had to admit, those heavy swords that Erza was wielding oh so easily was just a small testament to her real skill. That and Erza's form and her attacks, her moves were like of a dance.

A vicious, bloody and deadly interpretation of a dance was more like it.

Her hair swayed with every spin, every slash, and every movement. Naruto kept track of her movements with every sense that he could react to. For every movement that Erza made, Naruto's eyes would follow, for every sound that her sword would make, Naruto would hear and would react with either a dodge or an approximation of his wakizashi to parry and deflect despite its weight and momentum compared to the smaller sword.

Erza then gave a thrust with one of her swords and soon was deflected with Naruto's Wakizashi with one hand and stepped forward, deflecting Erza's remaining blade as Naruto ducked when Erza recovered and sent a slash. Naruto finally saw his opening and just then punched Erza by the back of her thigh, causing the said girl to lose her balance slightly, but enough that Naruto can move in to start his offense.

'_He's in a range where I can't counter in time!'_ Erza thought in a panic. Naruto got too close for comfort!

Naruto reeled his arm forward, thrusting his fist straight to Erza's armoured stomach, and stopped as it touched the steel of her breastplate.

"Senpuuken!" In a severe gust of wind, Erza thought she had just collided with a train at maximum speed. Her world spun, as Naruto sent her flying from their position, and crashing on to another side of the forest as she was sent through one of the trees before slumping down on the ground hard.

"He beat Erza just like that..." Gray mentioned as Mirajane scoffed at it. That is something Gray was horribly wrong at. From what she could tell, Erza was sizing Naruto up and he to her. She had to admit that Naruto was smart by dragging out that close quarter combat to allow him to get used to Erza's movements and striking a part of the armoured woman's non-protected parts, like her thighs.

"Scary fucker, isn't he?" Kiba asked as he looked down on the fight from his perch in the canopy above the trees. Lucy and the rest looked up as Kiba sat down on the sturdy branch.

"He's just about the same age as us, but he's so dangerous that you can't help but admire and be scared about him at the same time. He's had more battle experience than any of us put together and has the ability to find and abuse a weakness in a person. And that's not even the scary part." Kiba then turned his attention back to the blonde shinobi who then ducked as he saw a sword flying suddenly at him at immense speed, picking up a cloud of dust behind it. The sudden attack caught Naruto by surprise as Erza appeared before him, now clad in her famous Tenrin no Yoroi.

"Naruto is known for on his ambush tactics, his immense stamina and energy. When Shikamaru is our strategist, Naruto is our field tactician. He may look like an idiot, but when fighting, even guys like Neji and Shino find a hard time just putting him in one place."

Naruto stood impressed with Erza's show of arsenal, hundreds upon hundreds of swords now pointing dangerously at him. Sharp blades that could probably slice any stone cleanly in half all levitated proudly around their mistress.

"I've only had a chance to see you run away and not actually face you in combat. But if last night was any indication, I must never let my guard down but along with it you must understand..." Erza's serious expression turned into a scowl.

"You must never underestimate me." Erza threatened as her blades began firing at the blonde in unrelenting fury.

Naruto braced himself for impact. One sword took charge and aimed right at him. Naruto ducked, missing him by a few millimetres. On instinct, Naruto lashed his hand out above and grabbed hold of the sword in his right hand. The blonde shinobi then turned around and hurled the sword back to Erza as he dodged the rain of metal that was descending on him like a drizzle.

The blade stopped midway by Erza's telekinesis and redirected it at the blonde who was busy dodging her blades at him.

**SWOOSH!**

The redirected sword flew faster than her raining metal and Naruto manages to dodge it by the last minute by spinning his body to his right. Deciding that being on the defensive right now was enough, Naruto dashed forward, leaving behind a cloud of dusk to where he stepped last. Now out of her line of vision, Erza looked around in full alert as she darted her eyes left and right. Her senses already in full alert, she had not fully prepared herself when the blonde had reappeared beside her, fist already extended and flying straight to her face.

**SMASH!**

Naruto's fist hit her cheek with authority and her vision became a blur as she stumbled and lost balance from the blonde's punch. She had no time to recuperate as Naruto vanished once more from her sight and felt an immense and painful pressure rising to her stomach.

Her vision turned and saw Naruto kicking her to her torso as she was sent flying upwards.

Just before Naruto vanished, a grin escaped his lips.

"Fuujin no Kuromo (Cloak of the Wind God)…" Green energy then glowed around the blonde's body and a magic circle appeared beneath him. With a step forward before he darted upwards, the immense magic that she felt like an immense and cascading waterfall, herself, too feeble to overcome such rippling tides.

Then, the energy sharpened, as if refined around the blonde and he darted of like a rocket at her. Erza regained her bearings as she stopped her ascension mid-flight.

Her wings of metal spread out, glowing from the magic power she was letting loose. Before she could use more swords to try and pierce the blonde, she saw that Naruto's flight capabilities looked ultimately superior.

For when he flew, he was capable of doing sharp turns in mid-air and he was fast while he was levitating. To the ones below, watching the blonde fly was like watching a firework going off. Erza then made her move as multiple swords appeared around her once again. This time, she dared not use them against the blonde for offensive purposes, rather, she made the swords revolve around her like they were satellites in every which way. Then she charged at the blonde, head on, that was coming at her at mach speed.

Naruto seemingly halted from his attack. His flying still had a problem in control as he was zigzagging and whipping in midair like an uncontrolled missile. He dived back first when he saw Erza coming down at him with the countless spinning wheels of death surrounding her like it was her shield.

As he was almost on the ground, Naruto made a deliberate sharp turn forty-five degrees upward from the flat ground as Erza was sent crashing to the ground.

Smoke, dust and debris billowed around her as the ground below caved in from Erza's momentum, forming a crater around her.

Naruto watched in anticipation of what the girl might do next underneath the cover of the debris and was surprised to see three rapidly spinning objects came at his way at a speed he would definitely find reminiscent of a deadly Fuuma Shuriken. Naruto dodged to his right and barrel rolled in to his left as the second one went past him. The third one was dodged by a hair's breadth when Naruto rolled in midair as he descended to Erza's last known location.

The three spinning objects in midair soon stopped and disassembled into individual swords. The blades all changed their trajectories and went after the blonde once more.

Naruto cursed at his situation as he landed. Pumping chakra to his feet, he performed an overpowered version of Shunshin no Jutsu and charged inside the smoke as it was about to clear. The rain of swords followed suit as it impaled the ground that followed Naruto's path.

Erza's eyes widened once more as Naruto had now appeared from the smoke, right arm reeled back as he pushed through the cover that Erza had created. The blonde then let his fist fly, heading towards Erza's face as she looked in quite a surprise.

How did this person know where she was? Erza's look of disbelief as Naruto pushed through her defences was turned to shock as she heard the sound of her sword thrusting through flesh.

Naruto stopped and looked down, the sword of the mage pierced his gut from behind him. They all managed to catch up as several more blades pierced his upper and lower torso.

Erza was shocked for a moment as Naruto's body seemingly fell to the ground in slow motion. She couldn't utter a word as Naruto fell. No, she couldn't believe of what she was witnessing and what she had done.

Her shock turned into a remorseful fit as she felt her knees give way from the weight of both herself and her armor. How could she have not foreseen such consequences of her magic? How could she have been so careless?

Her thoughts, dark, morbid, disturbed; those dangerous mental images began flashing in her mind. She felt like throwing up.

When she looked at the corpse, she expected to see blood. What she hadn't expected was that the supposed body of Naruto turned out to be nothing more than a piece of log.

How on earth did that happen? Her thoughts now shifted to the present and her senses alerted her of the danger that was to come before her.

Then, from the clear blue sky, a voice had called out, loud and thundering. The very earth itself seemed like it was shaking from something in anticipation for something most breathtaking.

"TACHIKAZE (Earth Severing Wind)!"

Then, a flash of green light, and gale forces that were as strong as a hundred miles per hour came crashing from above.

**BOOM!**

The earth beneath them, as its name implied, split in a resounding explosion as dust and debris rose up in a straight line, one hundred meters long.

Erza braced herself from the force of the attack as she planted the sword in her hands to the ground. While letting the force of the wind pushed her back a little.

The winds died down, after a while, and Erza's vision cleared. A small blade then held dangerously close to her neck while a look alike of the blonde held her sword down with his two arms.

"This is your loss." Naruto said with a grin. Erza couldn't have said anything after that and she yielded.

"Naruto also has a nasty streak of not holding back." Neji mentioned this and watched with his Byakugan, examining the ministrations of Eternano that was being released from Naruto's body, no doubt he was studying the effects of Eternano to one's physiology. To his side was Hinata, also overseeing their little project and to another branch was Sakura who started to jot down notes.

"Note for any sudden change in heartbeat or any physiologic changes that shouldn't be there."

Sakura then turned her attention to Natsu who was now stirring and watching the powerful display of battle between Naruto and Erza.

"I still do not understand why you are doing this, Sakura-san. You have already learned much from Wendy's abilities." Shino commented from her right side while Sakura gave a small grin.

"Shino, you should know that by now, we have opened an entirely new arsenal at our disposal. Can you think of the wonders if both styles were to become in synch? Jutsu and Magic, Chakra and Eternano, the possibilities it presented itself are way too many! Think of the innovations it can do to modern medicine!"

"Or warfare." Chouji commented as jumped down from one of the trees that was swept from Naruto's forceful magic.

"That too but don't be such a stick in the mud about it! We're still not home and we probably won't be using our magic once we do! Remember the primary principle of Eternano." Sakura said in response as she continued to write down.

"Magical energy that can come from the earth itself, but Sakura, don't you think it has the same principle as Senjutsu?" Ino asked while Sakura scowled at it. If it were true, then imagine what would happen if they were to come back home, with all of this information and skills with them!

"That's a postulate that I'm willing to discover." Sakura mentioned this as her skin turned brown and multiple creaks began crawling up on her skin and lit up. Her right arm, with the creaks from her shoulder to her fingertips, glowed white as her pupils turned into sharp slits as that of a terrifying predator.

"Magic is still a mysterious thing." The seemingly creepy smile that escaped her lips managed to catch them off guard.

* * *

To be continued...

Rushed ending I know. Fight conclusion was sloppy but I got bored and I had things that I both had to do and wanted to do IRL. It's not easy being the second head honcho (forced) of a student organization for affairs outside of the school while at the same time studying for a pathology quiz.

As an apology, I also redid a profile of chapter eleven for Team Gai.

Anyway, here's the profile Team Seven's (the subordinates) profile in Earthland:

* * *

Name: Uzumaki Naruto

Age: 18

Allegiance/affiliation: None (Strictly coming from the council, it is therefore classified until further notice)

Profile: For the past two years since their marooning, Naruto has lived quite a hectic lifestyle as a ninja and operative of Kage. He has matured during his stay in Earthland and is already beginning to learn and understand the basics of being a leader from his mentor and current guild master, Hatake Kakashi. He'll still act like an idiot and be reckless, but when the situation calls for it, he can be a great tactical officer and take over missions on the fly and will not hesitate to throw a mission away if it endangers one of his friends.

Magic name: Senkusha no Fuujin (The Wind God's Herald)

Magic profile: A style of wind magic that manipulates the wind to any degree that the user wants. Unlike another famous mage with the same style of magic, this particular style not only augments fighting capabilities, but also enhances one's own physiology to the point that the user becomes superhuman befitting the name of the magic to the user as a herald of the divine entity of wind.

* * *

Haruno Sakura

Age: 18

Allegiance/affiliation: None (Strictly coming from the council, it is therefore classified until further notice)

Profile: The apprentice of the great Tsunade of the Sannin has grown in different ways in her stay in Earthland. She has learned a great deal in researching Magic and its correlation to their source of power, Chakra. No longer one to feel sorry for herself, Sakura has thrown her weakness out of the window and has become dedicated in her field of work in medical jutsu and research in Magic. Unknown to the outside, she has since discovered the power of magic and its application to a molecular/biochemical level that she has managed to create a style that emulates dragon slayer magic without the use of the lacrima procedures.

Magic name: Ryuumyaku no Kouin (Descendant of the Dragon Veins)/ (Descendant of the Ley Lines)

Magic Profile: A magic discovered through the test tube. Unlike the use of Lacrima, this artificial magic is at a level of DNA alteration rather than implantation of the said crystal. Applied with Sakura's natural earth affinity, Sakura discovered the next step in artificial magic through a molecular alteration that Wendy gets when performing her magic. This led to the discovery of Ryuumyaku no Kouin. The user of this magic gains superhuman strength and almost always maintains a dragon force like state when performing the magic. During this state, along with the ability to manipulate the earth at will, Sakura can sense people when her feet are on the ground making her a vital sensor when needed.

* * *

Sai (no last name)

Age: Unknown (Former agent of Ne, records of him is all but blank)

Profile: The mysterious former agent of the Foundation and expert swordsman taught by Danzo. During his stay in Earthland, Sai has learned a little of what it's like interacting with people. His poor communication skills still show up from time to time but he has learned to be more tactful unlike back then. Even though he has since proven his worth as a member of Kage and ultimately, a shinobi of Konoha, many of Naruto's friends still find Sai's behaviour as weird and downright creepy.

Magic Name: Ensui (dark water)

Magic Profile: Ensui is a holder type of magic that makes use of a small, almost metallic handle that absorbs water and shapes and forms it into a sharp blade. Among other things, Ensui is one of the weaker forms of magic used, but is one of the most versatile. Add to Sai's Choju Giga, Sai becomes a much more dangerous opponent.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke (presumed missing/ Tenko)

Age: 18

Profile: The last in line of the Uchiha. Sasuke has lost his mind since the revelation of his clan's planned coup twelve years ago and the ministrations of Konoha's involvement during the event. Ever since then, Sasuke has developed a grudge against Konoha and has then turned insane from the stress that came along with it. Two years before the events of Fairy Tail started, Sasuke has lost his memories from the Battle of Sea Forest in Earthland against Yamato's group along with Mistgun of Fairy Tail. Upon Jellal's discovery of him, Sasuke now goes by the name of Tenko and serves as the young councilman's reliable errand boy but will not hesitate at the chance to leave if an opportunity to learn of his past presents itself to him.

Magic Name: Shin En Maho (Sacred Fire Magic)

Magic Profile: Magic taught to Tenko by Jellal. Sacred Fire Magic involves using ceremonial flames of purification that was thought to be an exorcising magic for demon possessed humans. It is said that its flames changes in color depending on the emotion of the user. Red hot flames depict anger and rage, orange flames depict will and blue depict confidence and assured victory. This holder type of magic is formless and will come out of any medium from staves to swords.


End file.
